White Firmament, Obsidian Earth
by Aetriel
Summary: //AU// The Heartless never arrive on Destiny Islands. Sora never obtains the Keyblade. And darkness never consumes his home. Instead, a clear morning dawns on an island chain that still exists, and three friends embark on a journey by means of a raft...
1. Final Rest

_White Firmament, Obsidian Earth_

Chapter 1-- **Final Rest**

Sora drifted on the boundary between sleep and wakefulness, feeling fuzzy around the edges but aware of the warm softness of his bed underneath him. Snatches of his dream still played on the backs of his eyelids, though they disappeared in lightning-quick flashes and afterward he couldn't recall even a single image. But the dream had been important-- something inside him was certain of that-- so, why couldn't he remember what he had just seen?

When racking his sleepy mind proved to be ineffectual, Sora opened his eyes and was struck by the sensation of feeling very far away from his ceiling-- more accurately, from his entire room.

_Brriiiiiiiiiiiinngg!_

Sora started so violently at the sound that he would have fallen off the bed had it not been for the tangled sheets holding him captive. He did manage to knock his wrist hard against the nightstand, causing the shrieking alarm clock to fall to the floor and clang loudly before resuming its wake up call.

"Ow…" Sora sat up in bed and, with effort, swung his legs out of the constricting sheets to hang over the side of the bed. He rubbed his smarting wrist while attempting to turn off the increasingly irritating alarm clock with his feet. Using his left foot and right big toe and after botching a few tries, Sora was able to regain the silence that had formerly reigned in the room.

Now why had that stupid thing gone off?

"Sora?" came a sleepy voice from the doorway.

Sora raised his head to regard his mother standing at his door in wrinkly pajamas, one hand resting on the door jamb while the other rubbed sleep from her eyes. The image triggered in Sora a sudden sadness, a strong emotional inkling that he was about to say goodbye to his mother and leave… on a journey…

A journey! Yes, on the raft! To see other worlds- with Riku and Kairi! Sora stared wide-eyed at his feet as he huffed out a disbelieving laugh. How could he have forgotten? That was why he had set his alarm so early.

Soft, approaching footfalls drew Sora's gaze back up to his mother as she came to stand before him. A small, confused smile graced her lips and crinkled the corners of her sleep-puffed eyes, the expression reminding Sora of her childish playfulness and how much he was going to miss it.

"What's so funny?" she asked him softly.

Sora glanced down at his feet again as he self-consciously rubbed at the back of his head, uncomfortable with telling his mother even the smallest of lies. "I woke up before my alarm went off," he provided.

His mother scoffed a laugh that Sora understood to mean 'How is that funny?' and reached down to retrieve the alarm clock, her mildly tangled hair spilling over one shoulder. She straightened, and gently set the clock on the nightstand, before raising an eyebrow at her son. "And why did you set your alarm? Did you forget you're on summer vacation? I know that last year of school couldn't have fried your brain _that_ much." She reached over to affectionately rustle Sora's drooping spikes.

"I, uh…" Sora desperately searched his mind for an excuse. "We wanted to, um, go for an early walk, you know, while it's still cool outside. Me and Riku and Kairi."

Sora smiled weakly as his mother seemed to be digesting the information. Walk, journey… some people considered them one and the same.

"Since when has heat stopped you three from running around all over the islands, let alone going on a walk?"

Sora gazed at the ceiling and scrunched his brows in thought, attempting to make it look natural which, in part, it was. "Well, umm… it's going to be more like a hike, instead of a walk. Which is more of a challenge."

"Oh, okay." Sora couldn't discern from her tone if she was being sarcastic or if she actually believed him. "Well, you guys have fun then." She turned slowly to face the door, and as she headed out she called back, "I'm going back to bed. I've still got an hour left." The last word was followed by a leisurely yawn.

Sora bit his lip and stared at the door that his mother had left slightly ajar, his gaze remaining fixed for a while after his mother's bedroom door had shut with a faint 'click'. He forced himself to resist the urge to spring up into the bedroom after her and attack her with a final, desperate hug.

"Bye, Mom…" he whispered shakily, then quickly wiped at his watery eyes and jumped to his feet, taking a deep breath through his nose. He willed his mother from his thoughts and forced himself to think of his upcoming adventurous journey with his friends. He imagined the raft sailing over crashing waves and Riku and Kairi's faces brightening along with Sora's own as they landed with a splash of triumph, conquering the first part of their expedition. And that would only be the beginning! Once they found other worlds, there would be so much to explore and probably countless people to meet and learn from.

_Besides_, Sora mentally reminded himself. _It's not like we'll be gone forever. I'll come back to tell Mom all the neat stuff we discovered. I have to. _

Sora grinned at the clear blue horizon through his window, accepting his self-assurances, and began to get ready for the day with eager energy.

It took him only ten minutes, and then he was barreling down the stairs, hoping that the Treblowskis' dog Chow hadn't raided the pack that he had hidden underneath the playground slide, as the mutt always liked to do with the neighborhood laundry.

He made a quick stop in the kitchen, and deciding that he didn't have time to sit down for breakfast, Sora dug his hand into the first box of cereal he could reach and pulled out a fistful of crunchy loops, hurriedly stuffing them into his mouth. Figuring that there was still some room in his mouth for more, he grabbed another fistful and forcefully crammed it in. He then freed the milk carton from inside the refrigerator door and, before chewing any of the cereal, he tilted his head back and poured a good deal of milk in to join it. At first, the mixture was difficult to chew, but his mind was elsewhere as he left the kitchen and rushed down the hall, mulling over the state in which he would find his bag.

After exiting his house, Sora hurriedly locked the door and pulled his arm back in preparation to toss the keys in through the open window, but found himself hesitating.

Wait, he was coming back someday, so he would still need the keys. Right? Yes, of course, how could they not come back? Even ambitious Riku couldn't forsake their islands forever, could he?

_No_, Sora decided, firmly clutching the keys as he swallowed the last bit of cereal. _We'll be back._

He pocketed the keys, glancing down as an afterthought to see for future reference in _which _pocket he'd placed them, but the tinkling of chimes in a sudden gust of wind drew his eyes back up to the house.

His mother's brilliant butterfly wind chimes glistened in the clear morning sunlight as they swayed and spun from the porch awning.

Sora was going to miss that sound.

_I'm going to miss the whole stupid house_, he thought in a bittersweet wave of emotion, taking in the entire quaint, blue house. Sora's wind-tousled hair tickled his eyelashes and he swept it back while biting his lip, trying to keep from thinking of the single occupant inside who he was going to miss even more than the house.

"Ah, enough of this," he growled to himself and abruptly turned away from the house, his expression becoming one of determined hardness that chased away the gathering tears.

Sora stomped down the path that led away from his home, sneakers thumping in the dirt, and headed in the direction of the playground.

As he drew near the third house down from his own, Sora spotted a large, familiar mass of fluffy, chestnut fur under a wooden bench on the Treblowskis' front porch. The dog's body shook as it viciously tore at something clutched crookedly between its front legs.

Sora paused on the path, curiously regarding the sight. What was it chewing on? A bone?

His brows drew together as he squinted at the dog. He absently took a few steps into the bushes haphazardly crowding the front yard, suspicions forming in his gut.

As he drew near, almost halfway to the mutt, he heard its snarls.

"What are you…" he began, but cut himself short at the flash of purple plastic between the dog's teeth and paws.

Sora exhaled a disbelieving puff of breath and his eyebrows shot up at the realization of what the animal was so contentedly destroying. One of his diving flippers!

"Chow!"

Immediately, the dog's head snapped up and it whimpered instinctively at Sora's tone.

"Bad, bad dog!"

Sora marched up to the porch with his fists clenching at his sides, ignoring for the moment that he was technically trespassing. Chow's floppy ears drew back and he hung his head in submissive guilt, his large, brown eyes darting between his paws and Sora's tense, approaching form.

"Give me that!" Sora snarled and snatched his mangled flipper from between the cowed animal's paws.

He held the remains of the flipper up for examination and curled his lip in disgust as canine saliva oozed onto his fingers.

Voices from inside the house drew Sora's eyes to the front door, and as they grew louder he decided it was time to go.

Gripping the flipper firmly and inwardly cringing at the sliminess all the while, Sora took off past Chow down the right side of the porch, knowing that leaving the way he had come would take too long. At the end of the porch where the wooden planks became increasingly rickety before ending altogether, Sora supported his body with his free hand on the porch railing as he deftly hopped over. He threw one last scathing look over his shoulder at Chow's lowered head before escaping through one of the numerous gaps in the decrepit wooden fence.

Emerging into a field of tall grass, Sora slowed his pace so that he was able to push the long plants out of his way before they smacked him in the face. As he shuffled forward through the dense field, he wiped his flipper on some of the grass to get the remaining slobber off. "At least this voyage will give me time to think up how I'll get my revenge on that stupid dog."

"Sora?" called a familiar voice from somewhere up ahead. Sora endured a brief moment of confusion before recognition dawned. Wakka.

"Wakka?" Sora halted and tilted his head to one side, trying to listen for his friend.

He caught the sound of grass swishing, louder than it would in the wind alone, and seconds later, Wakka's form parted the grass in front of him.

"You talking to yourself again, Sora?"

Sora shrugged, grinning at the pieces of dead grass sticking to Wakka's clothes and hair, aware that at the moment his own appearance was probably very similar. But at the sight of his green duffel bag clutched in Wakka's hand, his grin faltered. Sora's clothes bulged out of a ragged hole that had been torn on one side of the previously hole-free bag.

Seeming to notice Sora's darkening expression, Wakka held out the ripped bag, wincing apologetically. "Yeah, uh, Chow found your bag under the slide in the playground. I'm sorry, man." Sora took the bag with his free hand, scowling at its new opening. "I chased after him, but that dog's fast, you know?"

Both flipper and duffel dropped to the ground and Sora followed in a crouch, touching a hand to his protruding sweatshirt and grimacing at the dampness.

"He's evil, that's what he is," he declared, punching his clothes back in.

Wakka laughed a little, then with hesitation coloring his tone asked, "I guess _that's_ what Chow took out of your bag, ya?"

Sora glanced up to see where Wakka was indicating, although he already knew perfectly well what the other boy was referring to, and his scowl deepened.

"Well, at least he didn't get to your clothes, again," Wakka offered.

"He probably wanted to try something new."

Wakka laughed again and Sora struggled for a while with the duffel's rusty zipper before growling in frustration and stuffing the flipper roughly in through the hole, instead.

As Sora straightened, Wakka cleared his throat. "I followed Chow through here, but I lost him at the end of the field. I found your bag just now when I was on my way back."

Sora nodded, sighing, and attempted to give a small smile, unsure if he succeeded. "Thanks, Wakka. I don't think anything else is missing. And I think the bag'll be okay. I won't have to carry it around that much anyway once we're on the raft… I mean, the… on the… uhm…"

Oh, he'd done it now. There was no turning back; now he'd have to explain everything.

But Wakka just stared calmly back at him, amusement pulling at the corners of his lips. Hadn't he heard Sora?

… Maybe not.

Maybe… maybe by some miraculous stroke of luck Wakka had gone temporarily deaf for the brief instant that Sora's stupidity had gotten the better of him!

Yeah…

Unexpectedly, Wakka's shoulders slumped with a sigh, and he crossed his arms while dipping his chin to regard Sora solemnly. "So, you guys really are leaving the islands then, huh?"

Okay, so he had heard. But where was the surprise?

"Wait." Sora shook his head, absently trying to escape the confusion. "You knew?"

Wakka scoffed, his steady gaze revealing a hint of sadness. "We're not stupid, you know. Or blind." He shook his head at Sora, squinting his eyes at the younger boy in mild disbelief. "Did you really think we wouldn't see the raft?"

"Well, we hid it pretty well at night." Wakka's expression implored him to reconsider. "Or, at least we thought we did." Sora grinned sheepishly, which was quickly replaced by a frown as Wakka's words caught up with his muddled mind. "Hold on, did you say 'we'? Selphie and Tidus know, too?"

At Wakka's nod, Sora closed his eyes and exhaled deeply through his nostrils, running a hand through his long, pointed tufts. When he opened his eyes short moments later, Wakka was watching him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Wakka. We should've told you guys. Heck, we should've invited you. Hey! Maybe you guys could still come! I'm sure Riku wouldn't mind if we left tomo--"

"No, no, no, no!" Wakka quickly held up his hands in refusal. "That's alright, Sora. Me and Tidus, we couldn't. We have blitzball, you know, and the team. And Selphie? Ha! Could you even _imagine_ her on a sea voyage?"

The thought made Sora shake his head in amusement and Wakka laughed out loud, but both of them stopped instantly at the rustling of grass a short distance away.

Wakka raised a knowing eyebrow at Sora before turning in the direction of the noise. "Selphie?" he called.

There was no answer, only the tranquil whisper of the grass in the wind.

"Anyway," Wakka began, eyes still scanning the vegetation around them. "I was saying something, ya?" His eyes jumped back to Sora and his eyebrows bounced upward as his mind returned to the conversation. "Oh, uh, I doubt that rickety little raft of yours can float carrying six people, much less three. Have you even tried it out, yet?"

"…What are you talking about?" Sora spluttered after a second's shocked silence, letting indignation raise his voice. "Have you even _seen_ it since we added on the new parts? I bet it can carry, like, _ten _people now!"

"Ya, okay," Wakka placated hastily, seeming eager to get his next words out. "But seriously, Sora, you and Riku have been talking about your other worlds for so long now, I'm not even really surprised about what you three are doing. But, you know, I'm kind of worried about you guys."

Though Wakka's admission sounded slightly odd to Sora, he exhaled his offense at the raft and tried to look understanding, asking with his eyes for Wakka to continue.

"Well, besides all the things that can go wrong out in the open sea, I just think you guys should be careful with _each other_." Wakka paused to bite the inside of his lip in contemplation, but went on before Sora could interject. "I mean, you three are really close and everything, but when you get into disagreements you guys really get fired up. And out in the middle of the ocean, you can't afford to be each other's enemies when you only have each other to rely on, you know?"

Wakka stopped and watched Sora for a reaction.

Sora responded by slowly nodding his head. "Yeah, I get that. I guess. But I can't imagine any of us ever getting so angry that we'd let something bad happen because we couldn't get along. Especially not Riku. Yeah, he's been kind of frustrating me for the last few days but he's thought more about the problems that we could possibly face than any of us. I trust him to lead us right."

Wakka took a deep breath and, in a brief flash of irritation, Sora wondered if what he had to say was all that important. He imagined that Riku and Kairi were becoming pretty impatient by now.

Wakka began slowly. "You're right, Sora. Riku's a good leader. But he wants this in a different way than you and Kairi do. You've seen the way he sits for hours on that paopu tree just staring out to the sea. And you know how he feels about the islands, about his parents. He's putting everything on the idea that you guys are going to find something out there!"

Wakka's intense gaze bored into Sora, as if mentally willing Sora to understand him. "Sora, Riku feels he has no reason to come back once you've set off. And after a while, if things don't go his way, he's most likely going to get pretty uncooperative. And if you and Kairi fight with him like usual, then you won't be able to work together and figure something out. You have to _show_ him what you mean, and you have to use logical arguments to convince him to make the rational decision. And I think you know what that is."

Wakka's shoulders sagged in conclusion, his eyes still regarding Sora gravely.

Sora placed his hands on his hips and pursed his lips in thought. Inhaling deeply, he dropped his hands back to his sides and asked curiously, "You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?"

Wakka looked skeptical for a moment before nodding quickly.

Sora returned Wakka's look with a skeptical expression of his own. "And you don't think we're going to find anything out there, do you?"

Wakka sighed, noisily shifting his foot in the grass. "I wish I had half the idealism that you have, Sora, but you're right. I think this whole thing is going to be a big waste of time and you guys are just setting yourselves up for disappointment."

Sora nodded stiffly, eyes on the green-brown plants as he stooped to heft his stuffed duffel up onto his shoulder.

"I'll remember what you said, Wakka." Sora didn't want to leave on bad terms with his friend. And deep down, he knew Wakka was only telling him these things out of concern. However, he wasn't going to let _anyone_ dissuade him from pursuing his dreams, the dreams that he and his friends-- most-prominently Riku-- determinedly and wholeheartedly believed in. "But I think you're wrong," he went on, resolve hardening his words. "There _are _other worlds out there, other worlds that Kairi, Riku, and I _will _find. And I know for a fact that we'll be back. You'll see and then you'll _know _that our journey wasn't just a waste of time."

He barely caught Wakka's whispered "Okay" before he was squeezed in a fierce hug, his friend's strength pinning his bag and arms uselessly to his sides. And it was only an instant before Sora recovered from the shock and he returned the embrace by awkwardly patting Wakka's side with his less restricted hand.

Sora opened his mouth to break the silence, but at the feeling of Wakka's chest expanding and contracting against his own as the sixteen-year-old took deep shuddering breaths, his throat clogged with emotion.

"Wakka, you idiot!" came a high-pitched cry from Sora's right.

Both boys jerked back at Selphie's surprising shriek.

"You're just going to let him go like that?" Sora saw that Selphie's skinny form was trembling where she stood a few feet away, and her furious glare was rigidly fixed on Wakka.

Sora glanced to his left at Wakka, and in any other situation would have laughed at the boy's fish-like jaw movements.

A sudden sob burst forth from Selphie, and Sora drew his eyes back just in time to see a flash of grass-covered yellow before all the air was driven from his lungs and sticks in the guise of arms clamped around his waist. Then the cerulean sky and gently swaying grass over Selphie's shoulder dominated his vision as the girl bawled freely, her great sobs breaking over Sora like a crashing tide and jarring him to the core.

Selphie's arms had pushed the strap of Sora's bag to the edge of his shoulder where it threatened to fall, and as he adjusted it back into position with one hand, he brought up the other hand to gently rub comforting circles on Selphie's back.

"Selphie, it's okay," Sora assured in a slight wheeze. But the girl only cried harder and shook her head against his shoulder in disagreement, the soft, curled tips of her hair brushing across his hand.

Sora sighed helplessly, wishing that Wakka would help him out somehow. But there was only the crunch of shoes shuffling in the dry grass to his left; not a single word to aid Sora in dealing with the situation. Wakka was contenting himself just to watch.

"Really, Selphie, it's alright," Sora tried again. "There's no reason to cry."

Then the arms dropped from around his waist and Selphie stepped back, giving one final despairing whine and wiping at her eyes with both hands.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw Wakka take a cautious step forward.

"So, that _was_ you making noises in the grass, ya? I knew you were-"

"You shut up!" Selphie spat at Wakka, rounding on him with a raised finger. "You said you were going to talk to him! All you did was make him want to leave even more!"

"Selphie, whoa, calm down!" Sora intervened, knowing he was encouraging the girl to blow up on him next, but certain that nothing Wakka would have said could have convinced him to stay. "It's not his fault! I--"

"It's okay, Sora," Wakka calmly interrupted, and Selphie's red-rimmed eyes ceased their aggressive penetration into Sora's to flash back to the taller boy.

Wakka placed a pacifying hand on Selphie's shoulder and stooped a bit to look directly into her eyes. "You're right, Selphie. I said I'd speak to him. But I never said that I would try to talk him into not going."

Selphie's mouth shot open, ready to protest, but Wakka swiftly brought up his hand as a silencing gesture.

"Sora has his mind set," he continued. "And we can't stop him or Riku or Kairi from going through with this. We have to let them go, okay?"

Selphie blinked watery eyes at him, her lashes sticking together, and then she sighed tremulously, giving a reluctant nod. Wakka released her before stepping back, and he and Sora watched as Selphie folded her arms against her chest and glowered stubbornly at the ground.

A few seconds passed in silence, then Selphie brought up big eyes to meet Sora's, watching him dejectedly through her bangs.

"Sora..." she started in a cracking voice, and Sora thought for a moment that she was going to begin crying again. "Just… be careful, okay? And tell Kairi that I'll miss her a lot and that there's no way I'm going to be the one who explains all this to her parents, okay? I mean it."

"Okay." Sora grinned and tightened his grip on his duffel.

"Hey, do you want us to come see you guys off?" Wakka suddenly put forward, and Selphie's face immediately brightened.

"No, I don't think so." Sora winced at their resulting crestfallen expressions. "Let's not make it that big a deal, 'kay? After all, we're coming back."

Wakka stepped back out of Sora's way, nodding sadly, and gently pulled with him an unresisting Selphie, whose lip had begun to tremble again.

"I promise you guys. And Tidus, too," Sora said confidently but quietly, not trusting his voice to remain steady at a greater volume. He turned his head and smiled crookedly at his friends as he moved past them, telling them, "We'll be back for sure."

Then he turned away, swallowing convulsively, and started in the direction of the path.

"Good luck, Sora." The huskiness in Wakka's voice made the back of Sora's eyes sting and his vision blurred.

"Bye, Sora…" And Selphie's watery squeak effectively cracked his wall of control.

Sora took off at a sprint, not bothering to stop the long grass from slapping at his skin, and not bothering to try to convince himself that the tears streaking across his temples were a result of the wind in his eyes.

He ran the entire way to the docks, and only stopped when his shoes touched down on sand, marking the shore that met the shallow water where tied boats bumped idly against each other. He stood, chest heaving, searching with narrowed eyes through the many paddle boats of various lengths and designs. Eventually, he spotted his own sandwiched between a slender kayak and Tidus' little kid boat.

Sora hurried over, sand flying in his wake, and scrambled to untie his boat. He pushed it off with a grunt, then hopped in and quickly sat before the violent rocking could throw him over. As he began to paddle with fast, furious strokes, Sora allowed his mind to blank and focused solely on the periodic splashing of his paddles.

Time flew by as he drew near the island on which he knew his companions were ready and waiting. But as he dragged his boat up between Riku and Kairi's, Sora became all too aware that the sun was now much higher in the sky than it had been when he had woken up. He was at least a half hour late.

Sora dashed across the sand to the far side of the island, but slowed when Riku and Kairi's voices reached his ears, conversing in neutral tones. Well, at least they didn't seem too irritated. But maybe that would change once Sora made an appearance.

Sora moved forward along the shore, around the bend in the rock face, and halted at the sight of his friends, listening to their conversation.

"Okay, so if our packs are strapped down… we're going to have to undo the straps every time we want to get something?" Kairi was asking. She stood with her right side facing Sora, one hand on her hip, staring down in front of her at the completed raft as she spoke.

Riku was crouched down on the raft, his back to Sora, and was fiddling with some ropes and belts, the reflected sunlight glinting white off of his hair.

He gave one last tug on a knot he was tying before raising his eyes to Kairi. "No, we'll be able to get things without messing with the straps. And we'll put the things that we're going to use often in the center our ring of packs." He indicated to the vacant spot left by the almost-complete circle of bags.

Kairi scrunched her lips and raised an uncertain eyebrow.

Riku simply sighed and turned back down to the packs before him. "You'll see."

Kairi sighed, as well, and raised her eyes to regard the distant horizon, tucking her short hair behind her ears. But as Sora stepped forward, her head turned at the movement and her eyes immediately found his, widening in surprise.

"Sora!" she cried, running forward to stand before him. "Finally! Where have you been?"

Around Kairi, Sora saw Riku turn and straighten, but the older youth remained where he was, waiting for Sora's response.

"I'm sorry, guys," Sora began, wincing apologetically. "I set my alarm a little late because I was having trouble sleeping last night, and I wanted to give myself more time this morning. But getting here took longer than I thought." A half-explanation, but it would do for now.

"Jeez, Sora, don't scare us like that!" Kairi said, tapping a fist against Sora's chest. "I almost thought you were bailing out on us."

"Oh, Sora would never miss the opportunity to ride on the magnificent Highwind," Riku broke in, stepping up to the duo with a teasing smirk on his face.

Sora regarded Riku with a considerable amount of incredulity, duffel dropping to the sand. "Highwind? Are you kidding me? I won that race fair and square! The raft's name is Excalibur!"

"Sora," Riku replied flatly. "Yeah, you did win. One out of three times. That's it. I won the most, so the raft's name is Highwind."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw Kairi smilingly shake her head at the dispute, but his gaze was locked with Riku's.

"But you said I only had to win once!"

Riku rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Kairi interjected.

"Hey, wait!" Both boys turned to Kairi, Riku with a sigh and Sora with the expression of one who had been done a great injustice. "As long as the raft floats, does it really matter what we call it?"

"Yes!"

"Well, yeah."

Kairi huffed, looking exasperatedly back and forth between them.

Then she rolled her eyes in exaggerated annoyance, and chided, "We haven't even left yet, and you two have already found something to disagree on. Okay, then. Let's solve this professionally."

Kairi strode over to her pack on the raft and kneeled to unzip it.

While she was digging through the bag, Sora took the opportunity to growl at Riku, "You _did_ say I only had to win the stupid race once, Riku. Don't try to act like you didn't."

Riku looked affronted. "I'm not! I did say that, but I meant that you had to win the _first _time, not the second."

"What?!" Sora exclaimed.

"Oh, no!" gasped Kairi suddenly, prompting Riku and Sora to turn toward her with questioning gazes.

"My Blue Gypsy Fortune Stones!" She turned desperate eyes on Sora, then Riku, then back on Sora again. "I forgot to pack them!"

"Wait." Riku halted her entreaties, blinking through his bewilderment. "You were going to decide on a name for our raft by using _rocks_?"

"Oh, I know!" Kairi went on, ingnoring the question, and her face lit up as something seemed to pop into her mind. "I didn't pack them because they're not at my house. I remember now-- the last time I used them was at the Secret Place with Selphie! I must have forgotten them there!"

"Hold on, Kairi! Shouldn't we be heading out now?" Sora asked hesitantly, aware that he was the reason they hadn't left, yet, in the first place.

"No, Sora, let her."

Sora furrowed questioning brows at his friend, and Riku shrugged. "I don't think it really makes a difference when we leave. I mean, it would be nice to start off with as much daylight left as possible, but night's going to come eventually. And besides, the moon'll be bright tonight." Riku turned to Kairi, tipping his chin as he asked, "You _do_ want to go back and get your rocks, right Kairi?"

"Yeah, I do." Kairi nodded before taking off past Riku and Sora, calling back behind her, "I'll just be a minute!"

Sora watched Kairi disappear around the corner, observing that she was, considerately, running very fast.

And when she returned, they would finally set out… Wow… it was finally happening. The thought almost made Sora dizzy, a flurry of emotions coursing through his being and leaving him suddenly feeling distant from the moment.

Then his gaze was drawn to the raft, sitting unmoving in the sand, and the sight of it grounded him. It was very large now, the wide, olive tent they had placed on a raised platform near the mast commanding all the attention. That was where they would seek shelter from bad weather and, also, where they would sleep. Sora could see their sleeping bags peeking out from here, though he doubted it would be so cold at night that they would need to sleep _in_ them. There was another, smaller tent set up on a corner of the raft, underneath which they had made a hole in the wooden logs, intended for relieving the bladder. Sora began to wonder how that was going to work, but stopped when his stomach growled, and he found himself eyeing the food crates beside the bed tent. According to Riku, it was forty-two days worth of non-perishables for three people, but it looked like a lot less the way it was crammed into only four crates. Strangely, the bottled water occupied a total of six crates, though if Sora really though about it, he could see the logic in that. Their packs, excluding Sora's last duffel, were strapped beside the elevated platform, alongside some sailing equipment that Riku had thought would come in handy.

Beside him, said captain of the raft began to chuckle quietly, and Sora twisted his head at the sound, meeting Riku's eyes with a puzzled expression.

"Fortune stones," Riku explained, slightly shaking his head.

"Yeah, I know," Sora agreed, grinning lopsidedly, but frowning a moment later as something occurred to him. "Riku, you're not actually going to let Kairi pick the raft's name like that, are you?"

"No, Sora, don't worry." Riku smiled knowingly at him. "After all, Excalibur isn't that bad a name."

Sora stared at his best friend, trying to discern from his expression if there was anything less than honesty in that statement. "Really? You're really going to let me name it Excalibur?"

"Yeah, Sora, why not?" Riku said, shrugging. He moved off in the raft's direction and dropped down to sit in the sand, leaning back on his hands. "I was just messing with you earlier."

Huh, what a surprise. Riku's maturity always popped up at the most random of times.

Sora watched Riku as he stared tranquilly out to the sea, the salt water quietly rushing up and easing back just before it reached his shoes. Maybe all three of them had changed, though Sora couldn't really tell with himself, but perhaps the change was due, now that they were finally growing up.

"Wow," Sora said with a smile, half-teasing, as he moved to sit beside his friend. "Thanks, Riku."

"No problem," was the nonchalant answer, and Sora wondered why he was so obviously downplaying his noble act. When had Riku last been this nice? Way before he had mentioned the idea of other worlds to Sora, that was for sure.

But Sora remembered that Riku had told him about a dozen times how lame the name Excalibur was for a raft, and how Highwind was an infinitely better name, and how the whole voyage was _his _idea in the first place so _he_ should be the one who got to name the raft, anyway. Was Riku just pulling is leg now? When they finally set off and opened the sail, was Sora going to find "Highwind" painted on it in big mocking letters?

"What's got your panties in a bunch, Sora?"

Mildly startled, Sora's head swung around to regard Riku with curious eyes.

"You were wearing your 'deep thinking' expression," he supplied.

"Oh… I was just…"

"Thinking?" guessed Riku, lowering his eyes and offering a smile that lacked warmth. "Trying to figure me out? I suppose it's hard to believe that mean ole' Riku would let you have something that you _actually _deserved." He laughed a bit to lighten the bitterness of the statement, but Sora felt only the cold wave of sudden shame.

"No, Riku, I…" Sora swallowed, catching himself before he spewed a lie to his best friend, and as he watched Riku's profile, he noticed a muscle twitch tellingly in his jaw. "I don't think you're a mean person. But… you _can_ be kind of a jerk sometimes, like when you imply that I wear 'panties'."

Riku snorted a laugh at his weak attempt to regain the former pleasant atmosphere, but his gaze remained fixed on the horizon.

Sora sighed and glanced down at his hands clasped in his lap, damp with warm sweat. Man, it was already starting to heat up.

"I ran into Tidus this morning."

Riku's soft admission brought Sora's gaze back up to the still profile, and he almost blurted out who he himself had seen before he thought better of it. Riku had more to say.

"He told me he knew what we were doing today, and then he started yelling at me about how it was the stupidest idea anyone had ever though of." Riku paused, staring with a far-off look at nothing before expelling a few chuckles. "Then he offered to come. What a dolt."

Sora waited for the rest as Riku stared down at the sand between his legs with a slight grimace.

Far overhead, Sora heard the faint caw of a seagull over the crashing waves, sounding to him like a mocking laugh.

"So, what did you say to him?" Sora prompted.

Riku glanced up, finally meeting Sora's eyes with his own penetrating gaze, and flashed a sad smile.

"I asked him who was going to take my place and keep all the neighborhood brats in check if he left, too. Maybe it wasn't the best way to turn him down, but I didn't think it was _that_ bad."

"He got really mad, then?" Sora asked as the memory of Selphie's trembling frustration flashed in his mind.

"He started cursing at me!" Riku stared at Sora and his brows shot up in disbelief before furrowing in puzzlement, his gaze returning to the ground. "Can you believe that? I mean, I understand a little irritation, but I would've never have thought he'd get _that _upset."

_He _did _idolize you_, thought Sora as he chewed his lip, the knowledge of Tidus' disappointment and anger making him feel very sorry for the sable-haired boy.

"After that, he just ran off," Riku went on, wearily running a hand through his hair. "I've gotta say, it was probably the worst goodbye I've ever had to experience."

Riku turned then and grinned at Sora. "At least I didn't meet up with Selphie. I'd rather deal with Tidus' screaming any day."

"Actually," Sora began, grinning back. "I saw her in the field by the park. Wakka, too. They were kind of upset-- especially Selphie-- but they didn't yell at me or anything. Well, not really."

"Huh," Riku remarked.

"But Wakka did say some weird things," Sora admitted, but then he paused to scratch at his head, wondering why he had started on a topic he really wasn't going to want to finish.

"Yeah?" Riku asked, peering curiously at Sora through his bangs.

"Uh, yeah." Sora averted his eyes, focusing instead on a small tear in his shoe. "He said that we should, uh, watch ourselves, and that he doesn't believe we're going to find any other worlds." Sora brought his eyes back up, wanting to see Riku's reaction to someone's doubts of him.

Riku returned the gaze coolly and Sora was unable to detect a distinct emotion in his voice as he spoke. "Well, that's too bad that Wakka can't see past our tiny, little islands, but the thing is-- he doesn't _want_ to know what's out there." He paused to chew his lip, frowning. "Just like the rest of the islanders-- their daily, routine lives are so ingrained in their minds that they're frightened of the possibility that something different exists. But there _are _other worlds-- it's inconceivable that there wouldn't be-- and we're going to find them."

Sora immediately felt his confidence in their purpose strengthen at Riku's unwavering resolve, but something in the other boy's expression made him wonder if the words were born of something other than determination. But Sora did not want to dwell on that right before they set off.

"What do you think we'll find in the other worlds?" he queried.

Riku clasped his hands between his raised knees and shrugged. "A purpose for life. A different way. I don't know. But it's going to be something we can't find here; that's for sure."

Sora bowed his head in a barely perceptible nod, though Riku wasn't looking at him.

"Riku, are you scared?" he found himself blurting, the sudden impulse to ask the question uncontrollable.

Riku turned slowly to search his friend's face. Sora himself thought he was doing an alright job at keeping the fear that had leaked into his voice from creeping into his face, but, then again, Riku could read him like no one else.

The older youth sighed. "Yeah, I am scared. But not of not finding anything, and not of what we do find being dangerous. Together, I don't think anything can hurt us. But I'm scared that… that you and Kairi… Well, I know you guys are planning to come back here someday, but I'm not. I can't. I know I don't belong here, but you and Kairi-- this is home for you." Riku paused to glance behind him through the palms, probably thinking about how Sora and Kairi would leave him to return 'home', to the islands he never wanted to see again. "I'm afraid that somewhere on this journey you and Kairi are going to decide that you've had enough and that you want to go home."

Sora's chest grew tight at the though that he was the cause of his best friend's worry. He didn't know how to respond to that. How could he? Wasn't Riku's fear an accurate prediction of the future? Wasn't Sora planning to do just that-- to come back? Just this morning, he had promised himself exactly that about a hundred times.

But Sora hadn't known that Riku wouldn't be accompanying him back. Was that even an excuse? He should have known not to assume something like that without consulting Riku. And he should have taken more time to consider the possibility of truth in Wakka's words.

"Riku…" he tried.

But at the sound of shoes pattering near in the sand, Sora's words stuck in his throat, and he was ashamed to find himself relieved at the interruption.

He turned from Riku, who was trying to look busy with the sand between his legs, to see Kairi jog up to his side.

"Sorry that took so long," she said through slightly labored breaths, eyes bouncing between Sora and Riku. They eventually settled on her empty hands and Sora noticed that she seemed nervous and fidgety, as if something were bothering her.

"I didn't find my fortune stones," she said, hastily sweeping her hair out of her eyes. "I think Selphie might have taken them home last time."

Kairi's second mention of Selphie finally reminded Sora of what the small brunette had asked of him.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Kairi," he said, standing and clearing the hoarseness from his voice. "Selphie told me to tell you that she'll miss you and that she doesn't want to be the one to face your parents when they go looking for you."

At that, Kairi's hand slowly went to cover her mouth and her eyes grew shiny, but it seemed she refraining from any outright crying.

Sora's sympathy was echoed in his tone. "Kairi… We'll see them again."

Behind him, he heard the sound of sand spilling off clothing as Riku stood. Sora reached to gently pat Kairi on the shoulder, and gave a comforting squeeze, trying not to dwell on how his words were soothing one friend while possibly hurting the other. He would work it out with Riku later.

Kairi shifted her hand up to rub at her brow, simultaneously obscuring her eyes from Sora. "I know," she sighed. "It's just… I'm afraid." She abruptly jerked her hands down to her sides in a helpless, frustrated gesture. "What if something happens to us? _Then_ how are we going to see our families and friends again?"

Sora was struck silent-- Kairi's concerns hitting home within his own heart-- but Riku stepped forward to offer his words. "Kairi, there's nothing to be afraid of. We've been preparing for all the dangers out there for a while now. We're ready to face almost anything."

But Kairi's gaze on Riku was desperate and held almost tangible fear. "But things happen even when people are prepared, Riku! What if we get caught in a freak storm in the middle of the ocean and we drown out there without anyone ever knowing what happened to us?! Did you ever think of that?"

Riku wasn't deterred. "Okay, you're right, there are many things we can't be ready for… but what about when our parents first let us come alone to play at Paopu Island? We were like, what? Seven? Eight? You remember how worried they were; plenty of things could have gone wrong. But they didn't. And that's because we were convinced that they wouldn't. We believed in ourselves, and that's what we have to do now."

Sora watched Kairi regard Riku uncertainly, but no protest escaped from her lips.

"Besides," Riku continued, softer. "We have each other. We're as close friends as anyone can get. Yeah, we're gonna miss our friends and family here, but we'll be together, so we'll be our own family."

Sora thought that was a little on the lame side, and suspected that Riku himself did, too, if his excessively loud throat-clearing was any indication, but Kairi's lips quirked up the slightest bit.

"If we're a family, then I must be the mom," she joked.

"Can't argue with that," Riku replied, grinning, and Sora was glad to see it.

Then Kairi's gaze dropped to her feet and she exhaled a heavy breath. "For a second back there I was thinking of just taking off in my boat and going back home." She glanced up, smiling sheepishly. "But now I'm okay, I guess. I was just panicking irrationally."

"I know, Kairi," Sora consoled. "I'm scared, too. But I'm more excited than anything. I can't wait 'till we set out… which, by the way, when will we?"

Under the expectant gazes of Sora and Kairi, Riku shrugged. "Now, I guess. Are you guys ready?"

Sora nodded. "Yup."

"Ready as I'll ever be," Kairi said.

"Then let's do it." Riku gave his friends' shoulders each a rough pat before moving off toward the raft.

Then, suddenly, he turned around, eyes searching and stopping when they alighted on Sora's duffel in the sand.

"What happened to your bag, Sora?"

"Oh, uh…" Sora picked it up with a grimace, and Kairi stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Chow happened to it."

"What's this sticking out of the hole?" Kairi wondered out loud, bending over to pull out the mangled flipper.

"Is that your _flipper_?" Riku asked, voice disbelieving.

"_Was_," Sora grumbled, taking it back from between Kairi's thumb and forefinger.

"Sora, all of your stuff's falling out." Kairi pointed to the ground and Sora's eyes followed, then narrowed at his belongings splayed out in the sand.

"Hold on." Riku turned away, striding up to his own pack and unzipping it. "I've got a backpack you can use."

He pulled out a large, black backpack with a generous amount of pockets, and Kairi scoffed beside Sora.

"You packed a bag inside of a bag?" Kairi griped. "Talk about a waste of space."

"Well, it came in handy, didn't it?" Riku instantly retorted without looking up.

Sora stepped up and took the offered backpack from Riku, turning it over to examine it. "Thanks, Riku," he said sincerely.

"No problem," Riku replied with a shrug, avoiding Sora's grateful eyes in an uncharacteristic display of self-consciousness. Then he smirked. "I kind of figured that something like this would happen. I just didn't know it would be _before_ we set out."

Sora swatted at his head. "Shut up."

"Guys."

Riku and Sora attentively turned their heads in Kairi's direction, both apparently embarrassed at being caught in the act of further stalling their departure.

"Let's leave already before I start to change my mind again."

The threat was meant as a joke, but Riku's answering nod was stiff and serious. Sora watched him worriedly, unzipping his newly acquired jumbo size backpack before calling Riku's name to halt the other's advance on the raft.

Riku turned, silver hair swatting his carefully neutral face, and waited for Sora to speak further.

"We're going, Riku," Sora assured, allowing a grin to spread its way across his face. Riku's throat bobbed as he swallowed, and Sora let his returning excitement filter into his voice as he continued. "We're finally _going_… I guess some dreams really do come true, huh?"

Riku smiled back at Sora with soft, appreciative eyes. "Yeah, seems like it…"

Then he moved off to help Kairi, and Sora silently bent to the task of transferring his semi-sandy possessions into his new bag.

"You know," Kairi started, ponderingly. Sora glanced briefly up from relocating his things to catch the girl's magenta head angling thoughtfully up at the raft's mast. "I'm getting curious to see how Highwind's _really_ going to do out on the open seas."

"Actually," Riku began. And as Sora zipped up a full backpack, he grinned to himself, reliving again the satisfaction of Riku's moment of generosity. "_Excalibur_ is going to do great out on the open seas."

"Excalibur?" asked Kairi. "Riku, you actually gave in? Wow, that's the first."

Riku shrugged and straightened up, brushing his hands together. "It's just a name."

Kairi snorted her amusement as Sora moved to join them, backpack slung over his shoulder. In one hand he held his deflated, torn duffel, and he glanced unsurely between it and the raft.

"Should I just leave this here?" he wondered out loud.

Kairi gave a simple shrug, but Riku shook his head as he replied. "Let's take it with us. We might be able to use it for something... Here, let me see those," he added, taking both bags from Sora and going off to secure them on the raft. Kairi and Sora watched him and waited patiently until he was done.

"Okay," Riku said when he had finished, standing and roughly wiping his hands on his pants. "Let's start pushing."

The hint of anxiety in his voice did not go undetected by either of his friends, but they followed Riku to crouch behind the raft all the same.

"Just don't push _too _fast, okay you guys?" Kairi said from Sora's left.

"Okay," he replied.

"Sure," Riku added absently.

The whole process of shifting the raft into the water and past the breakers turned out to be more challenging than Sora had expected. He was so focused on the task of keeping Excalibur moving forward rather than in reverse, that he didn't have time to feel any excitement.

But bobbing along afterward on still, deeper waters, clothes sopping and toes squelching in his shoes while random gusts of wind raised goosebumps on his skin… was, to Sora, an adequately rewarding rush.

He stood in a relaxed stance beside Excalibur's mast, oddly-shaped sail flapping wildly, and tried to drink up what he figured would probably be his last sight for a long time of sunny little Paopu Island.

Sudden movement in the corner of his eye drew his gaze to the edge of the raft, where Kairi had begun to jump animatedly up and down on her tip-toes, rapidly bringing her hands together in brief little claps. A wide grin broke across her face and excited eyes alighted on Sora, who quickly spread his legs to steady himself as the raft began to rock in response to the girl's movements.

"Wow! Can you believe this?" she cried, bouncing her way toward Sora in an uncharacteristic display of Selphieness. "We're really doing this! We're _actually_ having a real adventure! Oh, m-- hurry! Group hug!"

Kairi took Sora's hand before hurriedly reaching over to the other side of the sail to snatch Riku's arm, as well, and yanked him over. Then, squealing delightedly, she pulled them forcefully into a tight, three-way embrace. Sora tried to keep Kairi's shoulder bone from jutting painfully into his jaw as he slowly wrapped his arms around his friends' waists.

Riku's arm eventually found its way onto Sora's shoulders, and Sora reflected that despite the awkward mesh of limbs, this felt nice. Just relishing in the closeness between him and his two dearest companions-- yeah, it felt good.

Kairi squealed again, grip on the two boys tightening, and Sora couldn't help but laugh at the girl's obvious enjoyment of their haphazardly smashed positions.

Abruptly, Kairi gasped and pulled herself free of her friends' arms, causing them to stumble forward into the space she had so suddenly vacated as she leaped backward.

She giggled. "Your laughing tickles, Sora."

"Sorry," he said, laughing through a grimace as Riku used his arm to pull himself upright.

When Riku was steady, he used his grip on Sora's arm to shove the other boy playfully, tipping him off-balance again. "You guys are weirdos."

Sora scoffed, righting himself before reaching over in retaliation to push Riku back. "Like you're so normal, Mr. I-wanna-find-new-worlds-using-a-raft-instead-of-the-more-logical-_boat_."

Riku simply chuckled in response, looking at Sora as if he knew something the younger boy didn't.

"Hey," Kairi called from a corner of the raft, drawing the gazes of both boys. "Why aren't we moving?"

"Huh?" was Sora's instinctive inquiry. He moved to join Kairi, Riku following more slowly.

"We're not getting any farther from the island," Kairi clarified. She was squinting at Paopu Island's bright beach, the reflection of the midmorning sunlight on the white sand making it almost impossible to look at directly.

As Sora darted measuring eyes between the island and the raft, the thought popped into his mind that maybe they hadn't thought this thing out well enough. But he banished the dispiriting suggestion immediately- they _had _thought it all out. Had worked together for many long hours to prepare for numerous potential problems, in fact.

… But he hadn't expected one to arise so _soon_.

Riku stepped quietly up between his friends, and it was a few moments before he spoke. "I think it's because the wind's a little weird right now," he supplied, voice void of any anxious inflection, and as Sora turned to peer up into his face, he noted that Riku even _looked_ casual.

But after that final statement, silence pervaded the gently rolling raft, and Sora inwardly despaired at the loss of the easy mood and feeling of good humor the trio had been sharing just a minute before.

He licked his lips in preparation to speak, wanting to get things moving again-- and not just figuratively. "What do we do now?"

Kairi, mimicking Sora, raised her head to watch Riku, and Riku's eyes flickered briefly to meet Sora's before returning to the island.

Then he swallowed. "Now we start rowing."

Although Sora knew Kairi had been expecting that, the girl's body turned sharply to fully face Riku and her lips parted as she drew in a preparatory breath.

But Riku turned away, as if he hadn't noticed her intention, and started toward the oars lying near the packs. Kairi deflated, then met Sora's eyes and offered him a small smile tinted with underlying apprehension. And Sora understood. He felt the same way. Honestly, the work of rowing the raft didn't bother him. It was just that… for how long would they_ need_ to row? How long would it take the wind to turn in their favor?

They had all agreed that the oars would only be used in emergencies.

So… this must be an emergency, then. Hardly a half hour into their journey and they were experiencing an _emergency_.

At that moment, Riku returned carrying three oars, and handed two of them to Sora and Kairi.

"You two start over there," he said, jerking his chin toward the side of the raft behind Sora. "I'll double paddle on the other side."

Then Riku moved off to his self-appointed position, twisting his head back once to say, "We'll only have to do this until the wind straightens out and picks up, which shouldn't be too long. You know how it is around here."

Yes, Sora knew. And he knew that Riku was right. But, then why did the fifteen-year-old look so grim as he bent to kneel at the edge of the raft?

Sora sighed and turned to follow Kairi silently to their end of the raft. Kairi eased herself down to her knees and Sora took his place in front of her, pushing his leg flush against the low, wooden paling that prevented him from sliding into the water. As Kairi started a slow pace, Sora moved his paddle to match it, and the raft started a gradual rotation that straightened out as soon Riku joined in the rowing.

For a while, the only sounds in Sora's ears were the rhythmic splashing of his and Kairi's oars in the water, accompanied by Riku's doubly frequent splashes on the other side of the raft.

"The treehouse looks a lot smaller from way out here," Kairi remarked, voice faint behind Sora, and he guessed that she was looking over her shoulder as she spoke.

Then, against his better judgment, Sora twisted around and discovered that the treehouse did, indeed, look quite tiny, like a little birdhouse. But so did the rest of the island; even the normally towering palms appeared as skinny saplings with fragile, adolescent leaves. And just beyond Paopu Island, the corner of another island, his home island, was making itself visible now that they had traveled a sufficient distance.

He turned back to his task, focusing his gaze on the straight, flawless line of the distant horizon. He should be thinking optimistically; that's what was going to get them somewhere. _And I have every reason to be optimistic_, he mentally assured himself.

He was going on the voyage of a lifetime-- he and Riku and Kairi were creating their own purpose while discovering entirely new worlds! What other islanders could make such a claim?

But, despite the fact that this knowledge considerably bolstered Sora's morale, he found his gaze drifting to Riku's form across the raft, searching for the security and courage the elder usually imparted in him.

Riku was driven. That was a given. Sora just hoped that drive would be enough to empower them all to find the strength to pull through this thing. In one piece.

Now, he was starting to think like Wakka.

But Sora had absolute faith in his best friend, and he knew that nothing-- not even some fleeting, half-formed doubts-- could ever change that.

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_11,111 words!!! _Well, what do you think? I would greatly appreciate any helpful opinions or thoughts!


	2. Minor Disagreements

A very grateful thank you to the reviewers, without which this chapter would have been posted even later! I know, I know, you're all thinking that an almost two-month interval is long enough but, _trust me_, it could have been longer. And I apologize for that, since I have no excuse. I know the prospects for Chapter 3 arriving soon aren't looking good, but if this fic was meant to be written, it will be. Won't it?

Thank you also to everyone else who's read this far! And as of right now, I have either set the rating to T or M. If it's T, then watch out for mild cursing. And if it's M, then be prepared for _cursing_ cursing. Either way, I hope you enjoy the read, and feel free to complain for a refund if you don't!

* * *

_White Firmament, Obsidian Earth_

Chapter 2-- **Minor Disagreements**

"I'm hungry," Sora announced.

Neither Riku nor Kairi decided to grace him with a response-- not even a single glance was cast in his direction. Sora was standing right beside Riku as the older youth cleaned freshly caught fish in a bucket, so he knew for a fact that he had heard him. But Riku's head remained angled downward, focused on washing and cutting the white flesh of the fish, and occasionally his knife flashed brightly as it caught the orange rays of the setting sun.

Kairi sat in front of their bed tent on the raised platform a few feet from Sora, but he could tell that she was not so focused on what she was writing in her notebook that she hadn't heard his statement. His friends were simply ignoring him.

"_Guys_, I'm--"

"Hungry? Yeah, we heard you the first time," Kairi interrupted, flicking her eyes up to him for a short second while her pen continued to scribble away on the paper.

"Well, then let's eat already," Sora suggested, looking back and forth between his friends. "I know those little sandwiches at lunch couldn't have filled you up _that_ much. They were, like, barely an appetizer for me."

Riku finally raised his head, brows furrowing at Sora as if he couldn't understand him.

"Sora," he said, gesturing with the knife in one hand to the fish in the other. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Sora frowned, eyes shifting between Riku's pointed gaze and the prostrated fish disapprovingly. "Taking too long."

Riku sighed, shoulders slumping, and returned to his task.

Without looking up, he told Sora in a slightly exasperated tone, "Go start some of your dinner, then."

Sora turned away, absently scratching his stomach as he debated inwardly.

He _could _start eating his dinner now, which happened to be some of his mother's chicken casserole that he had brought along in a Flupperware container. But, then he wouldn't have much of it left to eat with the fish. Still, just the thought of homemade casserole made him glad that Kairi had insisted they each bring some fresh home meals for their first day at sea. They would be eating enough canned and heavily packaged foods during the rest of their journey.

As Sora mentally weighed the pros and cons of eating now and of eating later, he reflected that the entire day had been very food-oriented. After the building westerly wind had relieved them of rowing duty, which-- to everyone's relief-- had been quite soon, Riku had begun fishing. The hours had rolled by with Riku's hook continuing to return fishless, and Sora and Kairi had laughed and poked fun until their stomachs were begging for lunch. Afterward, Sora and Kairi had each tried their hand at fishing-- unsuccessfully-- before Riku had forcefully regained possession of their sole fishing rod and had eventually managed to catch two fish.

Maybe Sora only _thought_ he was hungry, seeing as his mind had been on food all day long. Or maybe he was just bored.

But, then why was his stomach growling?

He ultimately decided to just start on his casserole, and ended up eating almost all of it before he realized what he had done.

"Sora, wasn't that your dinner?" Kairi asked as he placed the lid over his miniscule amount of remaining food.

He looked up from his seated position and observed Kairi standing above him, closed notebook hanging from her hand. He flashed her a sheepish grin, hunching his shoulders.

"Ehehe. Kind of."

Kairi rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she dropped to a cross-legged position across from him.

"Well, you're lucky because it looks like Riku's about to cook the fish," she said, pointing behind Sora.

Sora turned and saw that Riku had paused at the mention of his name, one hand holding a match poised above its matchbox. He raised a single cautioning eyebrow.

"You're not getting all of it, Sora," he warned.

Sora waved him off, feigning disinterest. "Yeah, yeah. I know."

Still, he couldn't help the wistful sigh that escaped him as he watched Riku prepare a makeshift stove. Sora noted that the fifteen-year-old was very resourceful; he struck the match and lit a pile of woodchips that were sitting ready inside a small saucepan. Sora wouldn't have thought to bring woodchips.

"I don't see how you can be that crazy about fish, anyway," Kairi said, drawing his gaze back to her as she flipped open her notebook.

"What are you writing?" he asked, distracted by the metallic flash of the silver pen as Kairi uncapped it.

She glanced up quickly, looking at Sora as if the question had surprised her.

"A journal," she answered. "I want to document what happens on our journey. Starting today."

"Oh," Sora said, nodding in understanding. "That's a really smart idea."

Riku and Kairi had both planned ahead so well. Why hadn't Sora? It seemed the only useful items he had thought to bring were his camera and his favorite fiction series, _The Chronicles of the Stone Master_.

"Do you mind if I look at your notebook?" he asked Kairi, putting what was too late to change in the back of his mind.

She regarded him uncertainly. "I just started it."

"Well, can I see it when you've got some more?"

She shrugged, shoulders touching the tips of her hair. "Yeah, I gue—Actually, no," she amended.

Sora frowned. "Why not?"

Kairi tilted her head down to regard the green cover of her notebook. "Because if I know you're going to read it, I'm not going to write anything really personal. And I want this to be a candid account, so that when I read it in the future I'll know how I really felt."

"Fine," Sora replied, slightly miffed at having the opportunity to _do_ something taken away from him.

And for the next several minutes, Sora contented himself to watch the sun dip lower in the sky until it finally disappeared behind the plane of blue. The scent of cooking fish eventually reached his nose, and as it grew stronger, his mouth began to water.

"Riku, you idiot! You're burning it!" Kairi suddenly shouted.

"What?" Riku said, and Sora turned in time to see the older youth hastily jerk the skewers back away from the low flames. Riku's expression contorted into a grimace as he examined the blackened fish. "Oops."

"Great," Kairi remarked, slapping her notebook down on the wood of the raft in frustration. "There goes half our dinner."

"Wait!" Sora interrupted, scrambling to his feet and hurrying over to Riku. "Is the inside burned, too?"

Riku shrugged, searching Sora's face with doubting eyes. "You still want it?"

"Yeah," he breathed eagerly. "You guys don't?"

Riku shook his head while Kairi sourly replied, "No, thanks."

"Cool!" Sora exclaimed, seizing the fish from Riku's hands.

Fifteen minutes later found Riku and Kairi finishing off their own meals from home as Sora carefully licked each of his fingers clean.

"Mm, that was good." Sora patted his stomach in satisfaction, standing slowly. "You guys should've had some."

Riku scoffed as he washed his plastic utensils in some sea water. "Funny how you make us that offer _after_ you've already eaten it all."

Sora smirked cheekily at him, but his expression quickly dimmed as a sudden strange feeling crept up into his throat.

"Sora?" Slight concern leaked into Riku's voice, and Kairi raised her eyes from the piece of aluminum foil in her hand. "What's wrong?" the silver-haired teen asked.

But Sora was unable to answer, his hand shooting up to clutch at his throat in panic as the muscles there twitched and began to constrict.

"Shit!" Riku hissed, uncaringly allowing the plastic spork and knife to fall into the water as he pushed himself up, and in two long strides, slid to a stop at Sora's side.

A second later and Kairi was at Sora's other side, her hand hovering worriedly over the distressed youth's shoulder. "Sora, what is it? Does it hurt?"

Drawing breath became impossibly difficult for Sora as the tightening in his chest began to block off his air pipes, which seemed maliciously intent on slowly suffocating him. His gaze stared wide and unfocused at nothing as he tried to speak through his wheezes.

"I c… can—"

"He can't breathe," Riku finished quickly, casting a fearful glance at Kairi.

"You think?" the girl shot back, latching on to Sora's wrist and squeezing. "Sora… come on. Just… try to take deeper breaths."

Sora shook his head, trying to speak, but nothing managed to escape through his gasps.

"What do we do?" Riku's tone now neared panic, and Sora inwardly lamented his friend's inability to aid him.

Kairi shook her head helplessly. "I don't know… Sora, you're not asthmatic, are you?"

Sora shook his head once, just as bewildered as his friends were, and he briefly wondered if it was possible for someone to suddenly 'develop' asthma in the middle of adolescence.

"Well…" Kairi's brow puckered as she looked uncertainly at Riku. "I think caffeine helps stop asthma attacks. Do we have any coffee?"

Riku's form tensed anxiously and his eyes grew hopeful as they locked with Kairi's. "No, but I have an energy drink in my bag. Would that help?"

"Yeah. Hurry, get it."

Riku had sprung to his feet before she could finish her command, and his mad dash across the raft sent the vessel rocking heavily. The pitching tipped Sora off-balance, and he fell hard to his knees, Kairi following in a crouch to support him.

"You're gonna be okay, Sora," she assured.

As Riku dug furiously through his pack, he continuously cast worried glances at Sora, who met his eyes as he tried ineffectually to catch his breath. "Do you think it was the fish?" Riku proffered hesitantly.

Sora felt Kairi's hand freeze on his back, and through his darkening vision he saw the tension in her jaw as she fixed Riku with a concentrated, wide-eyed stare. "…It was poisonous."

Riku paused in his search, dubiously regarding Kairi. "_Poisonous_ fish? Are you serious?"

"Keep looking!" Kairi snapped, and Riku jerked back, resuming his task at a doubled pace.

Sora's wheezes were painful now, and he clenched his eyes shut as a penetrating, internal roaring began to drown out the voices of his companions.

"I _swear_, Riku, you're so—" The vehemence in Kairi's tone managed to infiltrate the thunder in Sora's head, and he weakly cracked one eye open to see her agitatedly rub at her brow. "You just never want to believe that you're stupid little plans aren't foolproof!"

"What?" Riku's exclamation released a puff of warm breath on Sora's face, and he started belatedly, realizing that the older boy had made it back to his side. "He _could_ be allergic."

"Still," Kairi argued as she wrenched the silver can from Riku's grip, popping it open and holding it away from her body as it fizzed and spilled on her hand. "You didn't even consider that! You just catch some random fish that we've never even seen before, give it a crappy little cleaning job that the fishermen back home would kill you for, and then give it all to Sora after you _burn_ it!"

Riku's lip curled into a sneer, and he was about to retort until Kairi promptly cut him off.

"And here we are," she went on, batting Sora's hand away as he grasped feebly at the can, "stuck out in the middle of the ocean with no one to help us while Sora is _suffocating!_" She brought the drink to his lips herself, and he choked and coughed on the first sip, the liquid having slid down the precise moment he had inhaled.

"Your bitching isn't helping him right now!" Riku spat through clenched teeth, snatching the can away from Kairi and unconsciously squeezing the fiber glass so that it popped and contorted in his grip.

Sora's pained, choking gasps momentarily cooled Kairi's anger, and she patted his back as Riku waited with the can ready in his hand.

"You can do it, Sora," Riku encouraged, and as Sora struggled to catch his breath he tried his best to believe him.

"Easy, steady breaths," Kairi whispered anxiously.

The urge to cough began to diminish, and Sora tried to stabilize his wheezing even as he fought to remain conscious.

Riku apparently saw the opportunity, and after waiting for the younger boy to take in a relatively deep breath, he lifted the energy drink to Sora's lips and gently tipped a small bit into his mouth.

Sora swallowed quickly, the liquid's sharp taste of too-sweet cherry lollipop piercing his awareness and chasing the black spots from his vision.

"More," Kairi urged.

Riku obediently lifted the can once more, but Sora hastily snatched it from his grasp and shakily took a sip on his own.

He managed a few more gulps before he began to choke again, and this time Riku pounded his back while Kairi took the rest of the drink out of his trembling hand to quickly set it down.

When his coughs had died down, Sora noticed that his wheezing had become easier and less painful. "I think it… it's working…"

"Thank God," Kairi exhaled, slumping back on her heels in relief.

Riku was silent, and simply rubbed a hand wearily over his face.

Realizing that his legs had gone numb, Sora shifted to sit on his rear, leaning back on weak, still shaky arms. He let his heavy eyelids slide closed and appreciatively thanked his luck as his breaths grew more effortless and deep.

"You see, Riku? This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about."

Reluctantly, Sora reopened his eyes and nervously watched Kairi recommence her argument against Riku.

"What if we—"

"We handled it, Kairi!" Riku interceded heatedly, seeming eager to put an end to the dispute. "He's okay now."

"But, what if we hadn't been able to 'handle' it?!" Kairi pressed, pushing irately to her feet while her biting gaze remained fixed on Riku. "What, _then_? Riku, Sora could've… things could have turned out way worse!"

Riku stood, as well, clenched fists paling in their strain. "But they _didn't_!"

Then Kairi released a frustrated sound and impulsively pivoted away, brilliant magenta hair flying around in a short fan. She abruptly buried her face in her hands, and her muffled voice only carried faintly as she spoke.

"_Gosh_, I really don't know what we were thinking when we started this stupid journey," she sighed, voice shaky. Then she dropped her hands and cast a glance back over her shoulder, slowly shaking her head at Riku. "I don't know what _I_ was thinking. The whole thing is completely ridiculous."

"Yeah, I don't know what _you_ were thinking, either," Riku viciously bit back, and as Sora watched the boy's eyes brighten furiously, he feared the potentially irreparable damage being done to the friendship of his companions. "You never should have come with us! Your stupid _fear_ and your _negativity_—that's what causes bad things to happen! You're practically _waiting_ for everything to go wrong!"

Kairi rounded on him, piercing eyes shiny with anger and disbelief. "Are you seriously blaming me for what happened to Sora?! Jeez, you're an even bigger asshole than I thought! That was _your_ fault, Riku! Just like everything else is—it's _all your fault!_" She took a step forward, contempt dominating her expression, and pointed an accusatory finger directly in Riku's face. "Sora fighting for his life just to _breathe_ is your fault! Deluding us to believe that this pile of sticks is going to get us anywhere is your fault! And when we die of starvation out here only a few miles from our islands because _you_ want to find new worlds, it will be _your goddamn fault!_"

Riku's eyes were livid, unblinking, and in that moment Sora was terrified for his friends. It seemed they were on the verge of coming to physical blows, and Sora knew he had to stop them.

"_Guys_," he pled, straining to apply his weakened vocal chords. Their fuming gazes remained locked, the odium between them unwilling to give up. "Please…just… stop fighting, okay? I _know_ that you guys don't really mean half the stuff you're saying. And besides, everything's fine. I'm alright now."

The raft gave a sudden lurch, and Kairi and Riku were forced to interrupt their staring match to steady themselves before they fell over. The energy drink tinkled as it tipped over, and Riku quickly moved to retrieve it even as it spilled half of its remaining contents.

The silver-haired boy straightened with the can in hand, turning to Sora with a smug, showy grin and loudly saying, "Yeah, Sora, you're right. You're perfectly fine now so there's absolutely no reason for anyone to throw any hissy fits."

Sora half-heartedly returned the grin, noticing that behind Riku's back Kairi was sending the older boy a burning glare that could melt solid stone.

Riku quirked his lips once at Sora before tipping his head back and chugging the remaining liquid down. Kairi swiveled away in frustration, deliberately heading for the farthest corner of the raft.

Sora sighed, leaning forward to hang his arms over his bent knees.

If these two were going to be neck and neck the whole time, it was going to be a long journey indeed.

~*~*~*~

Sora awoke to a breathy whisper tickling his ear.

"Sora, are you awake?" Kairi was asking, at an almost inaudible volume.

The half-asleep youth blinked up at the dark tent above him.

…Tent. Right. He still had to get used to the fact that he wasn't going to be waking up to the sight of his bedroom ceiling anymore.

"Sora," Kairi pressed from her position on his right. She probably couldn't see his eyes in the dark.

Off to his left, Sora was aware of Riku's gentle, even breaths as he slept on. That explained why Kairi was whispering then. Naturally, she didn't want to wake Riku.

Then the girl apparently grew impatient, as she reached over to give Sora's shoulder a light shake.

"I'm awake," he informed.

Nylon swished as Riku shifted a bit on his sleeping bag, sniffling as he turned away, before settling back into a still slumber.

Kairi's hand was now squeezing Sora's shoulder as she leaned so close that, instead of hearing her near-silent words, Sora thought he could feel them as she spoke. "Not. So. Loud."

He nodded, realizing in the next second that Kairi might not have picked it up. "Okay," he exhaled.

The ensuing silence stretched for about a minute before Kairi decided to speak again.

"Sora…" Kairi began, and though she had backed off a bit so that he had to strain his ears to hear her, he could still discern the note of seriousness in the word.

"We can't continue this journey."

"Kai-"

"Wait! Just listen." She briefly pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. "Sora, what happened to you yesterday was really serious. We were extremely lucky that we had something caffeinated on hand. But the chances of us being that lucky next time are pretty slim."

Sora wanted to interpose that the chances of something _that_ life-threatening happening again were also fairly slim, but he figured Kairi would just cut him short again.

"Sora, we have to go back home." Though her whisper was warm on his face, Sora was only aware of the cold disappointment creeping up his spine at her finalizing words. But he wanted this adventure so _badly_. "We never should have let it get this far. I know that now, but I was being too naïve in the beginning, thinking stupidly that everything would work out. Sora, you _know _I'm right. We have to turn back now before we get even farther from the islands."

Sora turned his face away from her, mutely resenting her somewhat logical pleas.

Kairi must have heard the movement and interpreted it for what it was, if her frustratingly sympathetic sigh was anything to go by. "I understand that you were really looking forward to this, Sora. Believe me, I was, too; but we have to be realistic now. Just think. Even if there _are _other worlds out there, we have absolutely no way of knowing where to find them. And the ocean is _huge_, Sora-- more vast than we can imagine. We're practically looking for a microscopic needle in the biggest haystack in the world, with the possibility that there might not even _be_ a needle."

By this point, Sora's conflicting emotions were creating turmoil inside him, and he struggled to keep his voice at a whisper as he spoke.

"What do you want to do about it, Kairi?" he ground out. "You think Riku's going to give up on his dream just like that? There's no way he'll listen to you. Not after what happened today."

"I know that, Sora." Kairi sounded unfazed, and as she continued her voice dropped so low that he was unable to catch her next words.

"What?" he asked.

She shifted closer again, so that her lips almost brushed his ear, and repeated, "He'll listen to you."

Sora was unable to stop his neck muscles from instinctively jerking his head back at the implication of Kairi's words.

Startled by his movement, the girl flinched back, as well, before gently placing a hand on his arm.

Sora stared up at the tent as it gradually grew brighter, the waxing moon's light having finally made an appearance as the clouds departed.

The moonlight gave the inside of the tent a whole new atmosphere of clarity, but he kept his gaze fixed straight above him though he knew Kairi could see his face now.

She wanted him to ask Riku to return to the islands from which the older youth had been contriving a way to escape for years. How could he possibly ask that of Riku? This journey meant everything to him! And to Sora, as well, but not only because he felt he had to support his best friend through his endeavor… No. Sora wanted this for himself so he could finally have a _real_ adventure. After nearly a decade of imagining magical places and battles, he felt he _deserved_ to experience this exciting, tangible quest of discovery. And Riku did, too.

"Sora…"

He turned back toward Kairi and tried to keep the discontent from leaking into his expression as he regarded her, imploring eyes shining in the new light.

"Tomorrow you have to tell him that we need to turn back. Okay?" Kairi watched him intensely for a reply. "He can't say no to you, so just tell him what I told you. Okay, Sora?"

Sora couldn't find it in himself to answer her, so he simply sighed as he turned his head away.

He heard Kairi twisting away on her sleeping bag, seemingly accepting his compliant gesture as agreement.

"Tomorrow morning," she whispered once before settling at last.

Sora's eyes remained open and fixed above him well after Kairi had drifted off. And after he finally allowed his eyes to close, it still took him a good while to fall back asleep.

His last thought before awareness left him was that it would be really great if tomorrow they woke up to find that the raft had washed up on the shore of a new world.

~*~*~*~

The following morning presented an air of such tension that Sora thought for certain another full-on argument would break out before the day was through.

But that turned out not to be the case. In fact, it was a very civil, very awkward silence that reigned over Excalibur that day. Exceptionally few words were spoken—absolutely none between Riku and Kairi—with Sora continuously refusing to broach the subject of reversing their course to Riku.

Sora found himself repeatedly wondering why a new world couldn't just suddenly pop up so they could all have a reason to get along again.

Numerous times during the day Kairi would shoot him pointed looks that increased in severity with each passing hour. Sometimes he would just glance away from her gaze; other times he would offer her a short, inconspicuous shake of the head. Perhaps when night came once again he would be able to give Kairi a definitive _no_—that he would _not_ throw away the dream that Riku and he needed to believe in more than anything.

He reflected that he should have just told her no last night.

But by the time darkness fell and they had gone to bed again, Kairi seemed to have finally understood that Sora had no intention of telling Riku that they should return home. As she entered the tent from having brushed her teeth, Kairi went out of her way to avoid Sora's eyes and lied down on her sleeping bag rigidly facing away from him.

Watching the back of the girl's unmoving, fuchsia head, Sora felt a little bit sorry for her. She was stuck with them now. Apparently, majority ruled on Excalibur and there was no getting around it. But, most likely, Kairi would come around eventually. She had to. She had harbored her own share of enthusiasm for their expedition once upon a time. No doubt she would regain it once the three of them had found a new world.

Sora just hoped for all their sakes that they would find one sooner rather than later.

~*~*~*~

A dispute finally erupted on their third day at sea, in the morning, just after the trio had finished a breakfast of sugary, preservative-loaded oatmeal 'n cream cookies.

"_What_ do you think you're doing?"

Kairi swung around at Riku's demand, torso twisting back from her kneeling position at the edge of the raft. Her jaw began to drop and her transparent green toothbrush almost fell from her mouth before she hurriedly snapped her teeth back firmly around it. Clasped tightly in front of her in a two-handed grasp, Sora saw a full water bottle that Kairi had seemed about to open, and which he was pretty sure she was holding against her stomach in an attempt to hide from Riku.

"I-I'm-I'm just-um…" she stuttered in a toothbrush-muffled voice, and Sora couldn't suppress the short snort of amusement that broke out of him. She probably couldn't hear him from his position seated in the entrance of the bed tent, anyway.

"I know you're not using our _drinking water_… to brush your teeth," Riku said icily, advancing to stand imposingly over Kairi.

The girl huffed helplessly through her nose before she pulled the toothbrush out of her mouth and turned desperate eyes on Riku, one hand absently wiping the toothpaste from her lips.

"Oh, c'mon, Riku!" she whined. "Ocean water tastes like crap!"

Sora almost interjected that he thought it tasted more like slightly diluted caviar, but instead he said, "It's not like you have to swallow it, Kairi." To him, her complaints were unwarranted; his rationale being that she should have to suffer just like everyone else.

Riku's hard gaze remained steadily locked with Kairi's as he reach down to pull the bottle from her grasp.

And Kairi went on without acknowledging Sora's statement of truth. "I was only going to use a little—barely, like… _not even_ a sip. And, seriously, I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it. If we would just _turn back_, we wouldn't have to worry about the damn water at all!"

"That's _not_ going to happen!" Riku instantly snapped back. He then proceeded to turn away toward the water crates, twisting the bottle cap closed even tighter though Kairi hadn't opened it yet. "You knew what you were getting into when we started this," he continued, placing the bottle back in the box with the others before shifting to face Kairi once again. "You didn't have to come, but you did. And that's your problem. But since you're here, you cannot go wasting water like that."

Kairi scoffed bitterly, and wordlessly twisted away to spit into the green sea water. Then, leaning closer to the water, she quickly rinsed her mouth and hands with annoyed efficiency.

"There," she said sourly down at the water lapping gently against the raft, and spit one more time. "Happy now, _Captain_?"

Riku simply maintained his irate stare on the back of her head, and for a few anxious moments all that could be heard was the cresting and breaking of the small waves rolling along with the raft. Sora's shoulders, which he had unknowingly tensed, began to relax as it seemed the argument was coming to a close, and he reached for the nearby beef jerky he had been planning to eat.

But then Riku took a brusque step forward, and derisively said, "No matter what you say or want, Kairi, this raft is going to keep moving west until we find something, or until 21 days is up and we've used half our provisions. So you'd better get used to it, because your attitude is ruining it for everyone else."

"You're such a stupid freaking jerk, Riku!" Kairi railed, whirling around and straightening up, and Sora stuffed his jerky in a pocket with apprehensive haste.

"Yeah, well, if that's the way you want to look at things…" Riku said, lifting his hands palms-up in a diffident gesture.

"No, Riku, quit twisting stuff around!" Kairi cried, swiping a hand through the air in frustration. She regarded him with an incredulous gaze for a few moments before continuing. "Why don't you realize that come 21 days, we will have found _nothing_ because there _is_ nothing out there?! There has never been any evidence of another place existing on this ocean besides Destiny Islands!" She waved an arm to vaguely indicate the surrounding sea. "'Cause wherever I come from is not someplace we're going to find out here! It's you who just invented this crazy idea straight out of the blue! This raft isn't going to take us anywhere except farther away from the one place where we're safe—home. So, we need to turn back now, Riku. You know I'm not just saying this because I want to spoil your adventure. And, honestly, I think Sora agrees with me, too, even if he is too afraid to say something."

"No, I—" Sora started, and Riku cast him a brief, cool glance that belied nothing of his thoughts on Kairi's implications. "Riku, I don't completely agree with Kairi, but I don't really know… what to think. I just don't want to argue with anyone."

Unreadable, Riku's gaze shifted back to Kairi, whose eyes had narrowed in her returning glare, seeming to be disappointed at Sora's words.

"Fine, Kairi. You want to turn back that badly?" Riku asked in a tone laced with disdain, and broke eye contact as he moved off toward the sailing equipment lying beside the mast. He reached down and easily snatched up two oars, then went back to Kairi and held them out to her handle-first. "Then, go ahead."

Kairi's lips contorted into a resentful sneer as her eyes flickered rapidly between Riku and the outstretched paddles.

"Take them and paddle yourself all the way back home," Riku told her. "This is what you want, isn't it? Just know that you won't get any help from us."

Sora swallowed, discomfited by his continuous inclusion into his friends' dispute, but unable to find the will to let loose the breath he was holding and intervene.

And Kairi seemed to have been struck dumb in the intensity of her fury; her eyes discarding the need for words as they conveyed to Riku all the ire and loathing within her.

Then, as she expelled an enraged growl, the petite girl tore the oars from Riku's hands and spun around to fling them with a surprisingly great amount of force into the ocean.

There was a very audible _splat_ as, first, one oar landed, and then the other, though the second sound was fainter as the oar fell slightly farther than the first.

"You-!" Riku gasped, gawking at Kairi in utter disbelief. "We _need_ those!"

Sora stood, prepared to do something about his own irritation at Kairi's actions, but found himself frozen in place as Riku suddenly pushed past the redhead and launched himself fully clothed into the water after the oars.

"Riku!" Sora cried, panic eventually driving his feet to the edge of the raft. "What are you doing?!"

Riku was a good swimmer, Sora knew, but the wind was unusually strong today and the raft had been sailing west at a relatively swift pace. And the impulsive youth had jumped off in the exact opposite direction. If he didn't have the strength to retrieve the oars and swim back quickly enough, how would he ever…?

All thought ceased as Sora was struck with a sudden realization. He raced back to the center of the raft and hastily tugged on the rope that would close the sail.

The large canvas _whooshed_ as it billowed in the wind before finally falling closed. Sora waited anxiously for the result of his action, but after a few long seconds passed, he was dismayed to discover that the raft had barely slowed its pace at all. The wind was simply too strong.

"Riku!" Sora called again as went back to the edge, remembering another option. "Should I drop the anchor?!"

"No!" was Riku's distinct reply as he furiously paddled across the choppy water, not sparing the time to look back as he yelled. "Don't bother! I can make it!"

Sora shifted uncertainly on the edge of the raft, twisting his head around to look back at the large, jagged rock tied to the mast that served as their anchor. It was so heavy that it had taken all three of them just to relocate the stone from the small cliff by the shore onto Excalibur, so who knew if once they dropped it into the water they would even be able to haul it back out.

Though when it came down to it, the risk of leaving Riku stranded out in the middle of the ocean was nowhere near worth merely avoiding the loss of a semi-disposable anchor should the need arise to cut it loose. But Riku himself had confidently assured Sora that he would be just fine. And the older boy usually knew what he was talking about… Right?

Sora drew his eyes back to follow Riku's now more distant form, and as he did so, caught Kairi regarding him with a cautious, measuring gaze. He turned to meet the gaze, and the girl cringed the slightest bit at his obvious distress.

"What where you _thinking_, Kairi?" he demanded, and she curled in on herself even further, glancing up through the concealment of her bangs.

"…I'm sorry," she murmured, voice trembling with more than just shame. "He just made me so _pissed_." Recounting her anger seemed to spark it back to life, and her stance regained a bit of its former self-assurance. "Sometimes he pushes _too_ far, Sora."

"But, what if he can't make it back? _What then_, Kairi?" Sora responded, staring at her with genuine worry.

Kairi's eyes became apologetic as she blinked back at him, unable to offer him a response, and she shifted her gaze to look after Riku.

Sora followed suit and saw that Riku had just reached the first oar, and was probably now out of shouting distance.

Then he made his decision.

"Help me lower the anchor," he ordered, fixing Kairi with serious, imploring eyes before moving off to the sailing equipment.

"What? Why?" she asked, following behind him, but without the amount of vigor he would have liked to see. "That thing weighs a—"

"Just help me!" he cried, and tried to shove the big rock down the length of the raft only to find that the roping that was looped around the rock itself had been knotted to the mast, in addition to the very end of the rope.

"_Crap!_" Sora deplored, and began to struggle with the exceptionally tight knot. "Who did this?"

"It was done so it wouldn't just slide off into the water in a rough storm or something," Kairi explained uselessly as she fell to her knees beside Sora. "Let me see it," she insisted, pushing Sora's hands away as she leaned in close and began to delicately pick at the elaborate knot.

Sora restlessly observed her attempt for a few moments before complaining, "This'll take _forever!_" Then he pushed impatiently to his feet to search the sea again for Riku, surprised to see him already on his way back, awkwardly paddling with both oars gripped in his right hand.

"Riku…" Sora sighed in relief. The boy was a bit farther away than when Sora had last checked and his strokes looked somewhat heavier, as if Riku was becoming weary from the effort, but he was paddling at a relatively steady pace, it seemed.

If only the raft were not moving as fast as it was. At its current pace, it was moving only slightly slower than Riku was swimming, so that it almost appeared the straining teen was making no progress at all.

"Kairi," Sora called suddenly as he was struck with another idea. Kairi raised her head questioningly from pulling at the tied rope with which she had been getting nowhere. "Forget that. Let's use this." He picked up a coil of loose rope that had been lying underneath the third oar and indicated for Kairi to follow him to the raft's edge.

"Maybe I can throw it far enough for Riku to reach so that we can pull him in with it," Sora suggested.

"Try," Kairi said, shrugging.

Sora began to position the rope in his hands so that most of it would end up in the water when he threw it, and tried not to let Kairi's discouraging attitude dispel his hope.

"We're gonna help you with this rope, Riku, so get ready!" he shouted to his friend, who lifted his head higher in the water as he watched Sora expectantly between strokes.

Once Sora had the rope the way he wanted it, he drew his arm back behind him and swiftly brought it forward in a wide arc to hurl into the water.

His face fell as he watched it sink and splat not even a fourth of the distance to Riku.

"You've got to tie a loop at the end, I think," Kairi advised as she helped Sora pull the heavy cord back to the raft.

Sora would have asked her why she hadn't suggested that sooner, but once they had all of the rope back he became fully immersed in the task of making a good loop.

When he had finished, he straightened and launched it off again only to watch it fall pathetically short once again; although it did seem to have made it slightly farther this time. But that also could have been because Riku was gradually catching up.

"_Urrgh_," Sora growled in frustration as he and Kairi reeled the rope in for the second time.

As they did so, both of them suddenly became distracted when Riku spontaneously decided to stop and tread water as the raft drifted farther out of his reach.

Sora's heart pounded furiously somewhere in his throat as his mind immediately thought of the worst.

And beside him, Kairi sounded scared. "What is he--?"

Riku let out an abrupt cry of exertion as he flung one of the oars in the raft's direction, and it was upon them so fast that Kairi didn't have time dodge it as the end of the handle struck her shoulder on its way past them. It clattered against the wood of the raft as Kairi yelped and flinched away just a moment too late.

"Watch out!" Sora presaged as the second oar came sailing at them, but the warning proved unnecessary as the paddle failed to make it that far.

It landed on the water just in front of Kairi and Sora, so that they were showered with the resulting splash of water droplets. Sora quickly reached out a hand for it, managed to get a firm grip, and pulled it in to toss behind him with the other oars.

And as Riku began to swim again, now faster, Sora hastily stood with the rope again and started to swing it in broad circles so that it reached well over his head even as it came to brush down against the raft.

"I think this will work," he told Kairi with confidence, before lobbing it with all his might. "Yes!" he enthused as the rope splashed down a little ways to Riku's right.

The older boy hurried to latch on to it, and Sora and Kairi immediately began to pull.

After a few heaves, they found that it was easier to sit back on their rears while wedging their heels in between two logs of the raft so they wouldn't slide forward.

And when Riku finally reached the raft, Sora imagined that he and Kairi had to be almost exhausted as their silver-haired companion, who was erratically panting and hacking sea water as they began to haul him up by his upper arms.

Sora felt the periodic spasms of Riku's drained muscles as he dragged him onto their vessel. He noted that the older youth wasn't even protesting Kairi's help, and then found himself wondering if that was a good or bad thing.

When Riku's entire body was finally out of the water, Kairi released him first and, chest heaving, scooted back to slump wearily against the raft's raised platform.

Sora leaned back on his propped arms at Riku's side, smiling tiredly down at his friend as the other boy flopped limply onto his stomach, gulping large breaths of air as he allowed his eyes to slide closed.

"…You okay?" Sora asked, and would have been laughing in relief if he hadn't been trying to catch his breath, as well.

Riku simply kept sucking in precious air for a few moments until he managed to croak out, "Are you… laughing at me?"

Then Sora actually did bark out a short laugh, replying, "No, Riku. Never."

The fifteen-year-old said nothing, and after a while opened his eyes again to fix them on the silent redhead.

"Kairi?" he said.

She turned her head in his direction, expression belying her conflicting distrust and guilt.

"Let me see your arm," Riku demanded, voice regaining its hardness.

"My _shoulder_," Kairi corrected, but obediently turned and pulled her shirt strap back to reveal the full hideousness of the multicolored bruise.

Then Riku smirked up at the sky in self-contentment. "Payback's a bitch."

Sora snorted, and Riku proceeded to do the same, which in turn caused Sora to begin to laugh in earnest.

Kairi huffed in irritation, but as Sora continued to laugh helplessly, the girl couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across her lips.

Sora's laughing grew into breathless, chortling gasps, and Riku finally kicked him in the side. "Shut up, Sora."

The younger boy momentarily returned Riku's admonishing, amused gaze before he let himself fall back to lie on the raft. He managed to calm his laughing, but the ridiculously wide grin wouldn't go away.

They were okay. Everyone was perfectly fine. And on top of that they were all smiling.

It wasn't physically possible for Sora to make the grin go away, and he didn't want to, anyway, because at that moment he knew he couldn't be any happier.

* * *

A/N: Okay, if you're just _dying _to review, but you don't know what to say, I would absolutely _love_ it if you would answer at least one of these questions for me.

- Do the characters seem OOC? Considering the circumstances? If so, who? Riku? Sora? Kairi? ...Or worse, _all three?_

- Would you go on a journey like this if you were an adventurous 14/15-year old?

- Did you find any spelling or grammar mistakes? If you did, _please_ let me know! Thanks!

And if you _do_ know what to say, go ahead and say it! If it's cruel criticism, I'll try my best to take it like a man...


	3. Omens and Actualities

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, or alerted so far! Your encouragement is priceless!

This chapter is rated for near nudity and a little language. Have fun!

* * *

_White Firmament, Obsidian Earth_

Chapter 3-- **Omens and Actualities**

Riku sat chewing on a stale piece of cold toaster pastry, eyes on Kairi's hunched form as he tried to come up with a rational reason to forgive the girl for what she had nearly done yesterday.

Kairi's arms were curled around her knees, and by the way her eyes were staring unfocused out over the water, Riku knew that she must be as deep in thought as he was, whatever it was she was thinking about.

Just the sight of her made an instinctive flash of resentment flare up inside him before the logical part of his mind could quell it down. Because he knew that it had really been _his_ words that had drawn out the intense burst of anger from the girl; that it was his pushing had finally made her snap. He just hadn't expected such a reaction from Kairi, considering her normally controlled and calm demeanor.

And yesterday had given him a taste of real fear. At first, Riku had only been scared that they would lose the paddles, which meant an inability to move the raft in any other direction besides that in which the wind generally blew, thus resulting in their eventual deaths if they couldn't sail or row to land once they saw it. But then, when his body had felt as if one more stroke would cause his heart to burst in exhaustion, Riku had feared for his life. Only the blind need to appear strong in front of the others had prevented him from allowing Sora to drop the anchor. But he had been terrified, nonetheless. His muscles still pulsed their over-taxed soreness even as he sat almost entirely still. Had the distance between him and the raft been any greater, he felt sure he would have drowned despite his competent swimming ability.

And that primal fear that had all but dominated his consciousness yesterday still lingered somewhere deep in his gut, and that was what was making it so difficult to forgive Kairi. She had caused him to feel more scared almost than he had ever been in his entire life. And he couldn't stand it when someone had that power over him, even for just a small while.

Sharp clanging of metal on metal brought his attention back to his surroundings, and he turned to see Sora struggling with a knife and a can of peaches. Poor boy.

Sora had always hated it when Riku and Kairi fought, and the last few days must have been really hard on him. But now he seemed more content and at ease, undoubtedly due to the supposed resolution yesterday of Riku and Kairi's conflict.

To Riku, however, the conflict still stood, lingering under the surface of forced civility. His jokes had only been his way of dealing. The only way to hide the all-consuming fear he had felt in those trying moments from the others.

And he couldn't forgive Kairi just yet. That was just how he was.

"Riku!" Sora's call drew his eyes from the forgotten toaster pastry and over to the younger boy's anxious form. "Help me!" he entreated.

Riku heaved an exaggerated sigh as he pushed himself to his feet, tucking his breakfast pastry into a pocket. As he went over to Sora he noted that Kairi had turned at Sora's fuss and was now smiling sympathetically at the brunette's predicament.

Then she looked to Riku and smirked as he took the knife and can from Sora. "Of all the things organized Riku forgot to bring, it just had to be the can opener," she chided jokingly.

It occurred to Riku that Kairi was probably being so buddy-buddy with him now because she felt genuinely bad about the paddle incident… _As she should_, he thought complacently.

"I told you guys, I could've sworn I packed it," he countered, unable to refrain from coming to his own defense.

Sora was watching him carefully as he examined the abused can in his hands. "Sora, this hardly looks salvageable," he told the shorter boy. "You were beating it too hard."

Sora huffed and pouted, not unexpectedly. "Just _try_."

Riku nodded resignedly and got to work, twisting the knife so that its handle was brandished and beginning to meticulously tap on the contorted metal. After he had gone around the entire circumference of the can's top, he used the knife's blade to pick at the weakened spots, and it was only a matter of seconds before the top popped open.

"Here," Riku said, putting down the knife and offering the peaches back to Sora, whose face lit up in appreciation as he took the can.

"Thanks a lot!" he said, flashing a grateful grin.

Riku was waving his hand dismissively when a sudden gasp from Kairi startled both boys, compelling them to turn toward her.

The girl was standing rigid as she stared open-mouthed out across the ocean, one hand clenched tightly over a bag of dried fruit down by her thigh. Then, the iron grip on the bag loosened as she seemed to suddenly relax, and she cast a sheepish look back to her companions.

"Sorry," she murmured. "I thought I saw something, but it was just some dark clouds."

Sora exhaled loudly. "Jeez, Kairi, you almost scared the poop out of me." He sighed again and began to rifle through his bag in search of something.

Kairi scoffed and furrowed her brow curiously at Sora's words.

Riku ignored them, focusing his gaze on the wide clump of clouds at which Kairi had been staring.

"What did you think you saw?" Riku asked her.

"Huh?" was her reflexive response as her eyes shifted to meet his. Then she shrugged. "I don't know. It kind of looked like an island. The way it was so close to the water, you know."

"Yeah…" he replied distractedly, eyes drawn back to the dark line of clouds on the horizon that looked almost black against the bright backdrop of the midmorning sky. If Riku squinted his eyes, he could see how Kairi could've thought they were an island.

If only…

"A new world wouldn't look like that," Sora broke in, chewing around a mouthful of peaches.

Riku shifted around to regard him inquisitively, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Kairi do the same.

Sora swallowed his mouthful. "I mean," he began, pausing to scoop another spoonful of peaches into his mouth, somehow managing to continue speaking as he chewed. "I don't think it would be an island like _our _islands, you know. I think it would be bigger—almost as wide as the sea. Like the kind we read about in school."

"You sound so sure," Kairi said, sounding impressed and laughing a little. "But, honestly, as long as we find it soon, I don't care what size or shape it is." She looked down then, expression slightly disappointed. "For a second back there I was really excited."

Riku almost felt a little bit sorry for the girl, the way she stood there looking sad, but he had never been one for useless pity.

"Ah, don't worry, Kairi," Sora said easily, scooping the leftover juice out of the can. "This must be like a good omen or something. I bet we'll find our first new world in no time."

Kairi nodded a little as she smiled back at Sora, and Riku couldn't stop his own smile from springing up.

What would they do without Sora's optimism?

~*~*~*~

On the eighteenth day of their journey, it was apparent that even Sora's positivity was hard pressed to remain at so high a level. As Riku and Kairi's good humor drastically deteriorated with each passing day that a new world had not been found, Sora's began to waver.

Naturally, Riku hated seeing anything dull Sora's almost constantly cheerful spirit, and if nothing became of their mission, then Riku would know for certain that it was his fault Sora's hopes had been raised so high only to come crashing down in disappointment.

As Riku worked himself into an even gloomier mood, he was anxiously watching the flap of the bed tent for movement that signaled Sora had finished changing and was coming out.

This was how it went every night before they settled in to sleep. They would each take turns using the privacy of the bed tent to change into their pajamas while the other two waited, usually patiently, outside.

Today, however, the sudden chill in the air was making it difficult for Riku to sit calmly as he waited. His hands went up to rub at his bare arms in an automatic gesture, but he was not so uncomfortable as to want to put on a jacket. Besides, he really didn't feel like getting up, which would cause the chill to be felt even more acutely as he moved through the cold air.

A gentle scratching sound reached his ears as Kairi began to brush her teeth off at the edge of the raft. As Riku turned toward the girl, he was relieved to see—for her sake—that there was no sign of any fresh drinking water around her.

Of course, with only the help of the weak battery lantern's light, it was impossible to tell for sure if Kairi was hiding the bottle somewhere behind her where Riku couldn't see. But he liked to think that she had learned her lesson.

Riku sighed and drew his eyes away to stare out into the dark ocean, and since it was a cloudy night, it all looked like pitch black limbo save for the small waves near the raft that reflected the lantern's light as they rolled and broke.

And as Riku gazed unseeing into the sheer blackness where he knew the horizon was, he came to the conclusion that it was a slightly scary sight. If he hadn't had the knowledge that the ocean really did stretch a great distance farther around the small area lit by the lantern, then it would seem as though the raft were surrounded by sheer black nothingness. As though nothing else existed.

Then the sound of Kairi spitting into the water penetrated his dark imaginings, and Riku forcefully shook himself of that unpleasant state of mind.

"Okay, I'm done," Sora announced suddenly, causing Riku's body to betray him as he started in surprise. He stood quickly to cover the movement, and glanced over at Sora for a reaction as he emerged in sweats and a thin T-shirt. But the boy was blessedly oblivious, caught up in the sudden coolness raising goose bumps on his arms while he put his clothes away.

"About time," Riku grumbled as he moved to enter the large tent, purposely sounding annoyed.

Sora stepped aside to let him pass, absently muttering, "It's cold out here," to no one in particular.

As Riku began to undress in the warm tent, his lip quirked at his friend's habitually slow observational skills. Count on Sora to state the obvious.

"Sora, what'd you do with my face wash?" Riku heard Kairi ask outside. Her facewash? Wait… hadn't he just seen a tube of some kind of cleanser lying around? Riku searched his memory as he threw the shirt he had been wearing onto a sleeping bag.

"I didn't do anything!" came Sora's petulant reply. "What face wash?"

"The one you used two nights ago, remember? You're the one who asked me if you could." The volume of Kairi's voice grew with her frustration.

"Oh,_ that_ face wash… I didn't use it, though. I changed my mind and put it back in your bag."

Riku rolled his eyes before shifting them to glare at the right leg of his jeans which, for some reason, wouldn't come off over his sock. Stupid, thick sock, bunching up on his ankle like that.

"No, you _didn't_," Kairi disagreed. "I just looked in _both_ of my bags."

And then it clicked in Riku's head.

He _had _seen his redheaded friend's missing face wash—_underneath_ her bag when he had been scooting it over the other day. Correctly assuming it had been Kairi's, he had then placed it on top of her notebook, which she kept at the bottom of her sleeping bag since she usually wrote in it every day. Riku hadn't returned it to her pack because then she probably would have assumed that it had never been missing, which he _wanted_ her to realize so he could rebuke her about how she wasn't careful enough with her things.

Looking back on it now, Riku was aware that his intentions had been rather base and self-serving. And Sora was the one who had lost it, anyway.

Sighing, he shuffled over to the end of Kairi's sleeping bag, his irritating jeans still clinging to his right foot.

The silence outside was broken when Sora hesitantly proposed, "Maybe you dropped it in the ocean."

Riku immediately pictured how Kairi was going to react to _that_ suggestion, and had to stifle a snort of amusement as he searched in the meager light from outside for the tube of face wash.

"_Why on earth_ would I do something that stupid?" came the high-pitched response.

_Sora should've expected that_, Riku thought to himself as he came upon a pair of dirty, mucus-green socks where he had hoped to find the face wash.

"Gross…" he muttered, hurriedly flicking away the offensive clothes items.

Ah! …There it was. The green socks had been covering it. Maybe that's why Kairi hadn't found it.

"Hey, Kairi!" he called, straightening up. "Your dumb face wash is in here! But don't come in, yet. Give me a minute to finish."

Riku reached down and hastily pulled his fat sock off, wondering why he hadn't though to do so earlier.

"What?" Kairi asked, voice faint as though she had moved farther away.

"Your _face wash!_" he yelled, pausing to growl when his pant leg flipped inside out as he tried to yank it off, the stubborn denim refusing to release his foot. "…is _in here!_ But, just wait a—"

_Fwoop!_

The tent flap flew open and Kairi ducked her fuschia head in, eyes widening as her brain registered what she was looking at.

"…_the hell, Kairi!?_" Riku jerked awkwardly, trying to force his jeans back on, and then tumbled over in a tangled lump onto a sleeping bag.

He lifted his head to see Kairi's jaw dropping even lower, and shouted, "Friggin' get out!"

"Sorry," the girl peeped, quickly pulling her head out and yelping when her hair caught in the tent's zipper. She smartly closed the flap before making any attempt at freeing the lock of hair.

Riku's face was on fire, equally from frustration _and_ embarrassment, as he slowly pushed himself up. Surprisingly, he wasn't as angry with Kairi as he was with how ridiculously he, himself, had reacted. He hadn't even been entirely naked, so why had he freaked out so much?

Sora's merciless snickering from outside made his ears burn even more, but it ceased when Kairi hissed a scathing, "_Shut up!_"

The front of the tent shook once before Kairi's shadow disappeared from the entrance, seemingly having yanked her hair free from the zipper.

Then her voice took on a meek, supremely apologetic tone as she addressed Riku. "Riku, I'm really, really sorry! I totally thought you said 'Come in here'."

Riku scoffed bitterly. Was she deaf? He hadn't said anything remotely resembling 'Come in here'…Okay, _maybe_… but, still. What a blond she could be sometimes.

He said nothing in response to her apology as he resumed changing. He didn't think he could speak calmly to her at the moment.

A few moments later, Riku became aware of a whispered conversation being held outside, though he couldn't make out any distinct words.

He stepped quietly over to the front of the tent and, turning an ear toward where the whispering was, began to eavesdrop.

"…know that Riku wears briefs?" Kairi was asking. Well, hadn't she gotten over her embarrassment in record time?

"Not all the time," Sora whispered back, making Riku's face burn as he shook his head at his friend's unceasing honesty. "He usually wears boxers when he spends the night…" Sora trailed off awkwardly, seeming to have realized the oddness of what he had just said.

For a minute, all Riku heard outside was a thick silence, until it was broken by Kairi's highly-amused laughter.

"Oh my _gosh_, Sora, you crack me up!" She gasped.

"Well, we're both _guys_, so we don't have to get all weird about changing clothes in front of each other." As Sora's voice rose in indignant defense, Riku attempted to force himself to remain calm as he moved away to finish changing, wishing his dear friend would just stop talking and keep his mouth shut.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kairi retorted, sounding a tad bit amused.

Sora failed to offer a reply, and Kairi seemed to take it as a sign that he needed more explanation. "So, you think even though I'm a girl, I _shouldn't_ be weird about changing in front of my two male friends?"

"What? No!" Sora hurried to respond, sounding stuck. "I didn't even… How—I wasn't even implying that!"

Riku had finally gotten his shirt and flannel pajama pants on and emerged to observe his companions in their dispute, his appearance going unnoticed as he stood beyond the beam of the lantern.

Kairi was giggling cheekily where she sat on some food crates, like she knew something that Sora wasn't admitting to.

"Oh, sure you were, Sora," she said in response to his denial. "You just want to see me without my clothes on, you sneaky, little dog! Well, your little roundabout way of saying so is definitely not going to work. I guess you'll just have to get your perverted kicks out of seeing Riku in his briefs, since you two are _so totally_ _fine_ with undressing in front of each other."

Sora spluttered helplessly, but Riku stepped forward before he could pull any coherent words together.

"_He's_ the perverted one?" he asked Kairi disbelievingly as he joined the game, and both his friends snapped their heads around in surprise. "When just a few minutes ago _you_ walked in on me _knowing_ that I might not be dressed?"

Kairi quickly recovered her composure, grinning disarmingly at him as she rested her chin on the arm propped on her leg. "Sorry about that." Then she turned to Sora. "And calm down, Sora, I was just joking with you. I know you're the farthest thing from perverted."

"Oh…" said Sora, cocking his head to the side as he watched Kairi, apparently undecided about how to take her comment.

Riku huffed out a short laugh, going over to put his clothes in his pack, then straightening up. "Oh, Kairi, your face stuff is in here," he told her as he moved to reenter the tent, seeing the other two follow him inside.

"What's it doing in here?" she questioned as the three of them gathered in the tent, Riku stooping slightly under the sagging roof on Kairi's side.

"I put it on your notebook where I thought you'd be sure to see it," he explained as he picked up the face wash and tossed it to her.

"Oh." She reached for the tube, fumbling and dropping it before bending down to pick it up. "Thanks."

"_There_ are my socks!" Sora suddenly exclaimed, pushing Riku out of the way as he pounced on the filthy green pair of socks. He picked them up and went about folding them neatly. "I really missed these."

"Eww…" Kairi scrunched up her nose in distaste. "They smell _disgusting!_ Is that mold or are they supposed to be that color?"

Sora stuck out his tongue and began to childishly flap the socks in front of the girl's nose.

"Ugh! Sora, cut it out!" Kairi complained, pushing Riku between her and Sora's socks. "Get those out of here! It's my turn to change, anyway, so both of you guys have to leave!"

Riku was smirking as he exited the tent, Sora following while saying over his shoulder, "Revulsion is the surest form of love, Kairi!"

"That's not even how it goes!" Kairi shouted after him before pointedly zipping up the entrance flaps of the tent.

As Sora went to put his socks away with his other _clean _clothes, for reasons that Riku could not fathom, the older boy stepped over to the edge of the raft, looking out over the black expanse once again. He folded his arms against the cold, and in the next second Sora was at his side doing the same.

After a few moments, the brunette craned his head to peer up at Riku with searching eyes. Riku glanced down at him, offered a smile that he intended to be comforting, and went back to staring out to the darkness. He couldn't tell if Sora had bought the attempt to assure him.

"It's the eighteenth day, Riku." Sora's tone wasn't one of disappointment; he was just stating a fact. "We've still got plenty of time left before half our food is gone."

Riku didn't know when three days had become 'plenty of time' to find a new world, but he was grateful for his friend's solid reassurance. He nodded in response without shifting his gaze from the sea.

"And, you know…" Sora began again, now following Riku's gaze and looking out over the shrouded ocean. "I've been thinking that…when we do find a new world, and you really do want to stay there or keep looking for other worlds… then I'll stay with you. Though, I'll want to go home from time to time and visit my mom and everyone, but I'll always come back. So, you don't have to worry about being left alone, Riku."

Riku turned and stared at Sora's reddening face, effectively rendered speechless in his shock. Was Sora truly making this promise? Did Riku's occasionally bittersweet friendship really mean so much to the boy?

"…Seriously?" Riku couldn't help but ask, trying to make it not sound like he really thought Sora would joke around about something like this.

The other boy half-turned his head, looking reasonably uncomfortable as he gazed up from underneath his spiky bangs.

"Yeah…" He appeared to be searching carefully for the right words as he gnawed on his lip, eyes flickering down before quickly returning to meet Riku's. "It's what best friends do."

Riku took a deep breath as he cast a glance back at the sea, his breathing having suddenly become more difficult.

Then he looked back at his waiting companion. "Thanks," he said, genuinely smiling. And though the simple word hardly seemed adequate, Riku knew that Sora felt his true appreciation radiating from him as he looked at Sora, who nodded his acceptance.

And because Riku would not be able to stand another minute of the emotional exchange if they were to start bawling like menstruating females, he felt he had to divert the path of their conversation.

"You know what else best friends do?" he asked vaguely.

"What?" Sora wondered, the lantern light highlighting the side of his face as lips began to curl into a smirk.

"They exact revenge for their best friends on their female best friends who have greatly wronged a best friend." Riku pointedly ticked his head in the direction of the bed tent.

"Oh, yeah?" Sora said, chuckling. "Well, you should have just zipped the entrance closed, genius."

"_Oh, yeah?_" Riku mimicked. "Well, why were you just standing around doing nothing while Kairi was barging in and invading my privacy? _You_ could've stopped her." He gave Sora a playful shove, making the smaller boy stumble over his own feet fall onto his back, grunting as the air left his lungs.

"Oh, I see," Sora said as if he had come to a sudden realization, pushing himself back up and brushing off his pants for show. "That's how it's gonna be, huh?"

Riku smirked and haughtily cocked an eyebrow, casually resting his hands on his hips. "You bet your ass that's how it's gonna be."

"Okay, okay," Sora acquiesced, nodding in feigned understanding. "I guess I'll just have to—" he broke off and swiftly brought an arm up to thrust at Riku, intending to punch it into the older boy's chest to knock him off his feet.

As if Riku hadn't seen it coming.

He easily deflected the blow with a swipe of his arm, then stepped back and held up two forefingers to halt Sora's next attack.

"Wait," he said. "If we're going to do this, then let's do it the right way."

He trotted the short distance to the sailing equipment, and after briefly digging around under the paddles, extracted two wooden swords.

Sora immediately leapt over and snatched a sword, then sprung back and watched Riku with an eager grin.

"You're on," he challenged.

Riku simply shook his head as he took his time to gracefully settle into his own stance.

Then, the sparring began. And the boys merely saw the resulting dipping and rocking of the raft as another small obstacle, much like how they viewed Kairi's complaints that she 'would never be able to fall asleep like this' as a minor obstacle.

But when the harried looking girl emerged for the last time threatening to throw their sleeping bags into the ocean, the boys were quick to drop their sticks and call the match a draw.

~*~*~*~

Five days later, the three friends had turned the raft around and were dejectedly making their way back home, the twenty-first day having come and gone without any sign of a new world. Though the wind was blowing from the north according to Riku's compass, and Destiny Islands was due east, the wide sail managed to push them along in the right direction at a fast enough pace.

Not that Riku was worried about running out of food at the moment. Not since now he knew for certain that he would never find another world, and he would never be able to escape the cloying quaintness of his home.

He twisted the thick compass between his fingers, and almost dropped it when a startling crack of thunder resounded in the overcast sky.

"Oh, no," said Kairi apprehensively, looking up from her notebook to gaze up at the thick, grey cloud cover. "I hope it doesn't start raining."

Beside her, Sora placed his bookmark between the pages of his paperback and sniffed the air probingly. "It seems kind of dry for rain."

Kairi regarded him flatly. "Did you _not_ just hear the thunder, weather man?"

As if on cue, a bright flash lit up the southern half of the sky, making the surrounding clouds look even more sinister in their contrasting darkness.

Sora opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by another loud peal of thunder. He visibly started at the roaring boom, and then seemed to have forgotten that he wanted to speak, opting to stare up at the shifting clouds that appeared heavy with an impending downpour.

Riku could feel his already negative mood declining further with their ever-worsening situation, and he wanted to stop any other complications from arising before it was too late.

"We should probably eat our lunch now, then, in case it actually does start raining," he suggested, trying to keep the despairing sigh from his voice. "It's almost noon, anyway."

"Yeah…" Sora agreed wearily, as Kairi closed her notebook and moved off to go put it away.

Once they had dug out some canned pork and beans, and were quietly settled eating, Riku was struck with the realization that he hadn't seen any lightning or heard any thunder for a few minutes now. Well, it would be a very welcome relief if the weather decided not to gift them with rain.

Kairi seemed not to have noticed that the small storm was abating. "Maybe I should go wash now before it gets too late and I have to do it in the rain."

She probably meant that she wouldn't be able to dry off from her 'bath' if she was continually being rained upon. Though, 'bath' was not an entirely accurate term; it was more of a dip into the ocean followed by a short, soapy scrub—Kairi called it a 'wash'. That was how they bathed, always wearing their bathing suits since none of them wanted to wait cramped in the bed tent just so the other could have the privacy of the entire ocean while they washed.

"I think the storm's calming now," Riku informed, voice slightly muffled by the strangely hard piece of meat he was attempting to chew. "The lightning and thunder have stopped."

Kairi halted the spoon heading for her mouth and looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "Huh," she remarked.

But in the next second a high-pitched yelp escaped from her lips as what could only be described as _blinding_ light flashed in the sky directly above their heads, brightening the entire raft to an intense, vivid white.

"Holy--!" Kairi gasped, immediately bowing her head and dropping the spoon to clap a hand over her eyes. "_My eyes!_," she hissed as she roughly rubbed them.

Riku was blinking at her dazedly, hardly able to make out her movements through the white spots dancing across his vision. He supposed he was fortunate that he had at least been looking down when the lightning had flared.

"You okay, Kairi?" Sora asked. Riku watched him reach out a hand toward her shoulder, but he missed by a good six inches and simply pawed at the air beside Kairi.

"I will be, I think," she replied, setting down the can to use the freed hand to reach back for Sora. She, too, groped the air for a few moments before she found his outstretched hand, giving it an appreciative pat.

Riku was still silently waiting for the thunder, but it had been a while and he began to get the impression that it wasn't going to come.

"I've never seen lightning like that before," he said, looking up at the unchanged sky through gradually clearing vision. He noted that the air felt strangely still. "And I think the wind has stopped."

At that, Kairi looked up at him, blinking and squinting like an old woman without her glasses. "It's stopped?" she echoed.

Sora, as well, turned his slightly worried gaze on Riku. "Does that mean we have to row, again?"

"Well…" Riku started, putting his own lunch down and searching for his compass as an excuse to avoid his friends' gazes. "Let's just see if the wind doesn't pick up again in the next few minutes."

Sora's response was an incomprehensible murmur while Kairi's was nonexistent, though they both slowly resumed their interrupted lunch.

Riku found his compass and stood facing east, the direction in which he thought they had been heading before the freak lightning show, but had since lost his bearings.

The compass indicated that he was facing due north.

Okay… so, he had been wrong.

He then turned right approximately ninety degrees, expecting the compass to now point eastward, but was stunned to see the hand of the compass still on the tiny _N_ that represented north.

What the…?

_No way_… his compass was _so_ not broken. That couldn't even be possible. He had been more careful with it than anyone had ever been with any other precious possession in the world.

Riku was turning in all directions now, at the same time twisting the compass this way and that. But to no effect. The red indicator refused even to twitch a millimeter away from the stupid _N_.

"_Shit!_" he hissed through tightly clenched teeth, gripping the small compass so forcefully that he thought it would crack.

"What's the matter?" Sora piped up from behind him.

Attempting to reign in the anger he felt heating his face, Riku slowly turned to face his friends and willed his fingers to relax around the compass.

"My compass is broken," he said quickly, trying not to let those simple words incite his extreme irritation again.

They stared at him for a few quiet moments before Sora furrowed his brow in confusion. "I thought we didn't need the compass to tell the direction if we just looked up at the…" he trailed of as he turned his gaze upward, where the dark clouds still hovered low over the entire visible ocean around them. "…Oh. Yeah. I guess the sun can't help us that much right now."

"Well," Kairi was quick to interject, sounding too uncertain to really be convincing. "The sky will clear up soon, won't it? I mean, this is the first time it hasn't been clear since we started out."

"That's kind of what I'm worried about," Riku admitted. "But I'm pretty sure I remember that east is this way," he added hastily, pointing.

"Yeah, I think I do, too," Sora supplemented, but it had no effect on Kairi's anxious expression.

"So," she said, looking up at Riku as she worriedly fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "We row?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "Might as well get to it."

The task was carried out in silence, and the clouds stayed with them unremittingly the entire rest of the afternoon.

~*~*~*~

On the twenty-sixth day of their journey, the clouds had departed and the sun shone once again, but there was not even a hint of a breeze, let alone a strong wind that could actually propel the raft forward.

The trio was currently taking a mid-afternoon break from rowing since they had been going at it all day for the past three days and their arms were becoming increasingly weary. Kairi was sprawled flat on her back in front of the bed tent, looking truly exhausted, and Sora didn't seem much better off slumped against his pack.

Riku stood, attempting to shake the tiredness from his limbs. "Okay, guys," he said, trying and failing pathetically to sound encouraging. "Let's get back to it."

Sora slowly began to push himself up, but his arms began to tremble so badly that they gave out on him and he fell back with an "_Oof!_" On the second try he managed to get himself into a sitting position, but took a good deal of time pushing himself all the way to his feet.

Kairi hadn't even moved yet.

"I can't do this anymore," she said with apparent frustration, sounding close to tears. "I can't even lift my arms, Riku." Her right hand twitched up a bit in demonstration, but it began to shake and wouldn't go any higher than the top of her stomach. She let it flop back down with a worn-out sigh.

"We'll never get home in time if we don't all help out," Riku stated, irately meeting her half-lidded gaze. "None of us can afford to stop right now. Rowing only makes us go half the speed we normally would as it is!"

"Then, what's the use?!" Kairi cried desperately, managing to bring herself halfway into a sitting position in her distress. "Who knows how far we drift off course during the night, anyway! We'd might as well just stop and conserve our strength so we don't drink up all our water in one day!"

"_You _do that, then!" Riku pointed at her to emphasize his point, but then brought his hand back to indicate himself. "But Sora and I are not stopping. Keeping it up is the only thing that's going to get us anywhere!"

"Fine…" Kairi muttered, turning her head away as she obviously dismissed him.

"Come on, Sora," Riku said, moving over to his oar without a backward glance.

Sora obeyed, and the two of them started to paddle the raft forward as fast as they could possibly make it go.

But only an hour later, Sora's oar clattered down on the wood, and Riku looked over to see the boy resignedly slouching forward over his knees, arms hanging completely limp at his sides.

Sora brought his head up to look over at Riku in apology. "I'm sorry, Riku. My arms are dead."

Riku turned his eyes away, remaining silent as he pulled his own oar up and laid it on the floor of the raft. There was no use in him rowing by himself. The raft would just spin in circles if he were to attempt it.

They sat unmoving for the rest of the day, each of them thoroughly drained, though Riku refused to acknowledge his own exhaustion.

When night fell, he told the others he wanted to stay up for a while, and they went to bed without a word in protest. He wondered if his words had even filtered through their haze of tiredness.

And then he finally allowed himself to relax. Sprawled out on the raft much like Kairi had been earlier that day, Riku stared up at the sea of stars that had always seemed infinitely vaster than the ocean below it.

If only they were looking for new worlds somewhere up there where twinkling stars abounded, instead of on the impenetrable ocean. And if each one of those stars were a different world, then they would have no trouble finding an endless myriad of new places to discover.

The thought suddenly came to Riku that here, stuck on this empty sea, the promise Sora had made to always stay at his side really meant nothing, now that their fruitless search had proved that there was nothing out there. And it was a real shame, because Riku knew that Sora had really meant every word he had said.

Riku's eyes suddenly began to ache as he felt tears start to gather, but there was no way he would let them fall. He hadn't cried in a long time, and he had no intention of starting a trend tonight.

It wasn't only the fact that Sora would never be able to act on what he had promised; it was also the sudden confirmation that Destiny Islands really was the only place he would ever know. And he was growing so _tired_ of everything associated with the islands, he just couldn't imagine being stuck there for the rest of his life. He would go _crazy_ if he had to live out the rest of his adolescent life forced to bend to his parents' will, and then grow up just to work and take orders from people just like his parents.

He just _couldn't_ do it.

The sudden caw of a seagull overhead abruptly threw Riku back into his memories, into nights when he had to go to sleep early in order to wake up in time for school, but couldn't drift off simply because a flock of seagulls had just found a midnight snack right outside his window and were making the loudest ruckus as they fought over it. He used to get so irritated he would actually go complain to his _dad_—who absolutely could not tolerate any 'nonsense' from Riku whatsoever—and put up with getting severely berated for waking him. Which, in turn, woke his mom up, who also yelled at him before his dad would go to the basement and dig out one of those flares that they never used and take it outside to shoot up straight in the center of the seagull flock, effectively terrifying the birds so that they wouldn't come anywhere near the area for another two weeks.

Riku had really hated those nights—being ganged up on from all sides at once. And all because those obnoxious birds couldn't shut up.

He blinked as the seagull flew into his view directly above him, silhouetted against the bright stars, and for a second he was worried that it might poop on him, until he became aware of something else.

There was a _seagull_ flying above him. Above the raft. Which was in the middle of nowhere.

There was land nearby! There had to be!

Riku immediately shot to his feet and rapidly began to search the ocean around him, and his eyes alighted on it almost instantly.

There. In the far southern distance, barely visible against the dark horizon, was the outline of a large mass of land, far too wide to be Destiny Islands. And if Riku squinted real hard, he could make out a few specks of what seemed to be orange light.

"Sora! Kairi!" he called elatedly, dashing over to flip open the tent flap. He stuck his head in and yelled, "Guys, there's land! I see a new world! With lights!" They slept on like logs, Sora only twitching his nose once. "_Sora_, get up!" Riku gave him a rough kick in the calf and the boy jolted into awareness. "Land, hurry!" he cried, pulling Sora to his feet and toward the entrance, turning back only to shout, "Wake up, Kairi! Get out and come see!"

And then he was bursting out of the tent, dragging an unintelligibly murmuring Sora behind him, and turning him around to face the far-off shape of land. "Look,"he urged.

Sora blinked blankly for a few seconds before bringing his hands up to rub the sleep from his eyes, simply blinking again when his hand had dropped away, and Riku felt he was about to piss himself from impatience.

Kairi stumbled out of the tent next and shuffled over to the boys, staring at Riku in sleepy bewilderment. "What band?"

"_Land_, you ditz," he said after a snort, too excited to get really upset with her. But, seriously-- they had just barely gone to sleep! How were they so out of it?

"A new world!" Sora suddenly cried, leaping up and down in delight now that he had finally seen it. "I can't believe it! It's huge!"

"I know, so let's get over there," Riku told them as he pushed them over to their oars.

Before Riku could even blink, Sora had snatched his oar and was getting it ready over on his side of the raft, not a hint of his former weariness evident in his energetic movements.

As Riku got set in his own position, Kairi was doing the same at a much slower pace, craning her neck around as she moved to keep her wide, disbelieving eyes on that miraculous strip of land.

"Kairi, _come on!_" Sora pressed impatiently. "Get down here!"

The girl finally tore her eyes away and settled down behind Sora, and then they were off, moving faster than Riku had ever remembered them moving, but still not fast enough.

He knew that it would take them quite a long time to reach the distant piece of land, and that they would be beyond exhausted when they did, but he was only concerned with getting there as soon as they possibly could.

They had finally found their new world, and right now nothing else mattered.

* * *

**A/N:** The scenes in this chapter may be too many and too short in comparison to those of the first two chapters, but I couldn't see it happening any other way. Please feel free to share any thoughts or complaints with me! And thanks for reading!


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